Memories
by Nylah
Summary: Danny Phantom goes missing for five months and then suddenly turns up again. And who is the strange boy hanging around Caspar High?
1. Prologue

A/N:

New story! I finally got it together. It's not finished though, but I have the chapters sort of outlined and I think I know where I'm going with this. Then again, I _always _think I know where I'm going.

I always reply to my reviewers in person, but I won't be giving out previews of the next chapter this time, because I don't have it yet.

About the story: The idea is not new, I'ts been done before, this is just my take on it. Still, I think gave it a twist of my own. I'm using a lot of flashbacks and changing third person point of views. That may be confusing. If that's so, please tell me. On the other hand, the story is meant to be confusing in the beginning. So if you're a little confused, that's good. If you're very confused, that's not good. Um, yeah. Also be advised: I do not rate this thing T for nothing..

Shutting up now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

* * *

Prologue

Vlad Masters was sitting in his extensive library, reading the newspaper. He felt content. Things were starting to work out as he had planned, finally his goal was in reach. He had struck a bargain, took a gamble and he had won. He looked briefly at the ring on his left hand. Things had turned out even better than he had hoped. He had shared a quiet dinner with his son and they had conversed pleasantly. Afterwards, Daniel had excused himself politely, saying he needed to do some work for his tutor.

He had come a long way, Vlad mused. But in the end, he had come around, seen it his way. His place was here, with his father. It had been a combination of sternness and kindness that did it. Soon, Maddie would follow. He was certain he could convince her to be with him and his son, instead of that oaf Jack Fenton. Their son. Daniel would be _their_ son.

His contemplations were disturbed by a tiny blinking red light on the device he always kept close to him. He stared at it. It wasn't possible, there was no way he could... He jumped up and started running, out of the library, through the hall. His son was in danger, he needed to... He ran through the long hallways, up the stairs. Finally, he reached his son's room and slammed the door open.

"Daniel," he yelled and stopped at the sight of his son.

A darkness seemed to emanate from him, absorbing the light in the room. The room seemed to waver a bit, as if he were looking through a lens somehow. Fear washed over him and he stepped back, looking into the hateful red eyes. He grabbed the remote and pressed the red button, but the boy... that thing... didn't seem to feel it. Then he saw a red flash and he flung out of the room and hit the wall across the hall.

Pain spread over his body, he could smell his burnt flesh. He tried to transform but he couldn't, he felt his powers leaving him quickly. Daniel approached him, smiling evilly. He held his hands before him and blasted his left wristband. In a flash he transformed into his ghost form.

"Vlad," he said darkly and came very close, grabbing his singed, blood soaked shirt.

Then he moved back somewhat and smirked at Vlad. He took a deep breath and the ground started to shake.

* * *


	2. Five months

A/N: Sorry about this, I meant to put up the first chapter together with the prologue, but I did something stupid and ended up saving an old version of the file over the new one...

Edit 4/5/2007 I knew I shouldn't have rushed things... Flashbacks in _italics_!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

* * *

Five months

Sam hid under the table in cafeteria as the Lunch Lady wrecked havoc to the kitchen. In her opinion it was really a disgusting ghost, attracting all the meat to her 'body'. But there wasn't much she could do about it except hide. She prayed one of the ghost hunters would get there soon, either the red huntress or the Fentons, although Jack Fenton might cause more damage than actually help.

A few months earlier Danny Phantom would have come to the rescue but he had mysteriously disappeared. Sam wondered if the GIW had captured him, but they seemed as baffled as the rest of the town of Amity Park. Of course, after he disappeared, people had realized just how many ghosts this 'Public Enemy' really captured. They were swarming the town now, causing the red huntress and the Fentons to have to hunt them almost non stop.

Then the doors of the cafeteria burst open and a loud voice bellowed, "Where's the ghost!"

Sam moaned. She signaled to Tucker who was sitting under the table next to hers and started to move towards the door. If anything, Jack Fenton would keep the ghost busy for a few minutes so they could get out of there. Then she heard the familiar humming of a hover board.

As the students poured out of the cafeteria, running in every direction, Sam and Tucker walked to the nearest bench and sat down on it. There was no reason to move further away than that, the red huntress was very capable of capturing a weak ghost like the lunch lady. Once she blasted all the meat away that was.

Sam knew who the red huntress was. She didn't know how she knew, and she seemed to be the only one, apart from Tucker, who knew it was Valerie Grey. So they kept quiet about it. Valerie obviously didn't want anybody to know. Sam wrapped her arms around her. It was cold out and her coat was still in the building. February had started in rain and cold.

"Let's go around to the other side and get in again," Tucker suggested, "They are almost done in there anyway."

Sam nodded, got up and looked at Tucker. "I see you saved your baby", she said sarcastically, pointing at his PDA.

"Yep. I see you're still dreaming of Phantom," he answered and quickly jumped out of the way before she could kick him.

She glared at him instead. She would never admit it but there was some truth in Tucker's remark. When Danny Phantom hadn't shown up the first time she had felt disappointed, hollow. She had known immediately something was very wrong. But maybe he had just gotten tired of fighting ghosts and had returned to the ghost zone. Where he belonged anyway. Still, she would like just to see him again, look into those glowing green eyes, flying... well, that was just a dream.

Still, she wasn't Paulina, crying at the shrine that was her locker every day. Sam would die before she admitted that, like Paulina, she had a crush on the ghost boy. And he had been missing for five months now.

They entered the school again at the front entrance and walked down the hallway to their lockers. From the sound of it, the lunch lady had been captured and they were now cleaning the cafeteria. It had almost become routine. They passed Mr Fenton and his daughter who were quietly speaking together, no mean feat for Jack Fenton. They looked sad. Sam remembered there was something wrong with Mrs Fenton. She felt a bit sad too, she was such a nice lady and she baked great cookies.

The feeling that something was wrong remained with her the whole day. She couldn´t shake the feeling she was missing something, a feeling that had popped up occasionally during the last months, but was stronger now. It had something to do with the disappearance of Danny Phantom, she was sure of it. But she wasn´t going to tell Tucker. He was teasing her enough with her crush on the ghost boy already.

After the last period she stepped outside with Tucker, ready to walk home. She wasn´t paying attention to the other students much until she saw a group of jocks gathering around a boy. They were pushing him around, calling him names.

Anger flared in her and she moved closer, calling out to them. "Hey, leave him alone".

Dash turned to see who was interfering and smirked when he saw who it was.

"We don´t want no drug dealers near the school," he said, punching the smaller boy who winced, "If you need stuff from him go somewhere else you goth geek!"

An angry snarl appeared on the boy´s face at that. He balled his fist and hit Dash in his stomach. Dash cried out and doubled over. The boy clasped his hands together expertly and hit him again on the back of his neck and Dash fell to the ground, groaning. The boy glared at the other jocks who backed away somewhat. Sam stepped back too when she saw the vicious look in his blue eyes. Then he looked at her fearful face and his look changed into... disappointment. He turned and ran.

"Hey," Tucker said, approaching Sam, "What was that all about?"

Sam was staring after the boy. She shrugged. "Nothing. Let´s go home."

* * *

He ran as fast as he could, away from the hostile jocks, away from those purple eyes that had looked at him. She was afraid of him... He hadn´t meant to scare her, he only wanted to look. But the blond jock had interfered while he was hanging outside the school, doing nothing but watching the kids leave the building.

He stopped next to a tree and leaned against it, out of breath. He hadn´t meant to hit the jock either, but he had been enraged when he had heard him insult her. He looked back. Nobody was coming after him. He grinned. They would have to keep up with him first.

He started walking at a normal pace, silently counting his steps. Why was she afraid of him? Could she see he was...evil? He had been working so hard the past month to push it out, had that been for nothing? He frowned worriedly.

_He was walking in the middle of the empty road, blue eyes glazed, staring straight ahead. He was miles away from the destroyed castle now, he didn't have to worry about being caught anymore. So he had stepped out of the forest, onto the road and had randomly chosen a direction. The darkness in his mind receded somewhat now that the crisis was over.  
_

_ He didn´t know how long he had been walking but his feet hurt so it must have been a while. Random thoughts kept shooting through his mind, most of which disturbed him. Thoughts of death and destruction, of torture and pain. He wanted to hurt somebody, to lash out, tear them apart, to... Fortunately there was nobody around. Just the road, the trees, some small animal._

_He concentrated on his walking. He placed his feet carefully, painfully, counting the steps. When he reached one thousand he started again. The counting cleared his head, pushed away the darkness to the back of his mind. He couldn´t push it out completely though._

_He reached a crossing and stopped. Where to now? Should he try to find other people? Would it be safe for him to be around others? He stood there a while, lost in thought. Then it hit him. It didn´t matter where he was going, just as long as he kept going. He took a step forward. He never heard the car._


	3. Living small

A/N: I reread the last chapter and I noticed a confusing point. My intention was that it should be clear from the text what was taking place when, but obviously I didn't succeed in doing that, so I'm giving you and extra clue: flashbacks in _italics_. I also changed the last few paragraphs of the previous chapter, to make it clearer. Go look if you're interested.

Oh, and this story obviously takes place _before _the third season episodes. I only saw them last week and I had already started this...

Many thanks to my reviewers!

Edit 4/7/2007: 'Emissary of Honesty' has a point. I separated the dialogue from the narration. Hope this helps.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

* * *

Living small

Danny sat in the window of the third floor of the abandoned house and stared at the street below. It was a narrow street in a bad neighbourhood with overflowing trashcans and rusty car wrecks. The house he was in had been in a fire of some sort. The walls were blackened and the stairs were completely gone. It suited him just fine. He didn't need stairs. What was less pleasant was the big hole in the roof on the other side of the house. The room he was in however was dry, but not warm. Luckily he didn't need warmth either.

He got up, walked over to his worn backpack and took out the bread and the soda he had stolen earlier. It was getting darker outside, so he created a small green ecto ball to light the room. When he finished the bread and the soda, he grabbed the apple he had taken for good measure and took a bite from it.

He sat with his back against the wall. He was finally here, in Amity Park and now he didn't know what to do. He had arrived early that morning, hitching a ride with a shabby man in a fancy car. The man had tried to get him to come to his house with him, even went as far as grabbing his arm when Danny tried to get out of the car when they stopped at a traffic light, but had backed off quickly when Danny glared at him. He was getting quite good at that. He almost never had to actually hit anybody anymore.

_He sat huddled in the corner of yet another warehouse, his eyes warily on the door. He knew this wasn´t the best place to sleep but he was tired. Just for a few hours, he thought, closing his eyes, and then he would find something better. He rested his head on his worn out back pack, trying to get into a comfortable position. He drew his coat close to him, using it as a blanket._

_He awoke painfully when somebody kicked him in the ribs, causing a sharp jolt of pain through his body. He yelped and tried to sit up but strong hands pushed him down. He opened his eyes and wished he hadn´t. The man that was pushing him down was ugly and dirty. Danny flinched as he smelled his breath. _

_"Little boy," the man said, slurring. Somebody laughed in the background. _

_"Don´t little boy me," Danny growled and squirmed to get himself free. _

_He could see more people in the room, black shadows of shabby men, holding bottles. At least three of them. The man that was holding him put some more weight on him, to prevent him from freeing himself. He moved his body sidewards and lashed out with his left leg, hitting the man on his shins._

"_Aarch, you little beast!" he cried out and hit him in his face. _

_That did it. He quickly went intangible and the man felt right through him. "What?" _

_Before he could get up Danny kicked him in the groin, feeling that that was the best way to incapacitate him for now. The other men stopped laughing as their comrade laid on the floor, groaning. Danny jumped to his feet and didn´t hesitate. He launched himself at the one closest to him and hit his knee with his stretched leg. The man howled in pain and went down, clutching his knee. The other two jumped him but he avoided them easily. They were either drunk or high, in any case they were no match for him._

_They got up and he glared at them, inviting them to try again. They took a good look at him and bolted out the door, leaving their fallen comrades. Danny slowly relaxed somewhat. _

_"You broke my knee!" the man whined. _

_The other one tried to grab him again as he picked up his backpack and Danny kicked him again. He stepped outside, into the darkness. He had no idea what time it was, or where to go, but that wasn´t unusual. He counted his steps. When he reached one thousand he started again. He counted until he had pushed the darkness back to the back of his head. He felt satisfied. For the first time, he hadn´t lost control._

Danny felt a lump in his throat and swallowed. He would not cry. Crying would get him nowhere. He took out his sleeping bag and rolled it out on the floor. He was used to sleeping on the ground now and the rough wooden floor didn't bother him as he laid down. He closed his eyes.

_The first time he opened his eyes, the light hurt. He squinted, trying to take in his environment. He was in a room of some sort. White walls, white curtains, white... bed. He was in a bed. He smiled and closed his eyes again._

_The second time he opened his eyes, there was someone in the room. The light wasn't so bright now so he looked at her. She was a nurse and she looked slightly startled. Then she moved to the door and opened it, calling out to someone. _

_"He's awake!" It sounded as if it was something unusual  
_

_Danny looked at the door eagerly, expecting to see his father but it was just a doctor.  
_

_"Hi there," he said, moving closer, "I'm doctor Gregory. Can you speak?" _

_Danny nodded and then shook his head. "Water," he tried to say but the word wouldn't come out of his dry mouth. _

_Dr Gregory seemed to understand though, because he signaled the nurse and she lifted his head gently, holding a glass to his mouth. He took a sip and started to cough. _

"_Easy now," Dr Gregory said. _

_Danny now drank more carefully and the nurse sat the glass down. _

_"Can you tell us your name?" the doctor asked. _

_"Where am I?" Danny asked, "What day is it?" _

_Dr Gregory hesitated. "You are in Madison Memorial Hospital. You've been here a week. You were hit by a car". _

Danny's eyes shot open as a blue mist came out of his mouth. It was very dark out now, the only light in the room came from the flickering street light below. He groaned, got up and silently transformed into his ghost form. He stood still for a moment, firmly locking away the darkness that was always lurking in the back of his mind. Then he floated out of the house to see who it was. If it wasn't a dangerous ghost he was going to ignore it, he decided. He had no means to capture it. He let himself float above the houses, trying to locate the ghost. In the end he found him in a warehouse down the street, which was filled with boxes.

"Yeah, yeah, beware," he said to the Box Ghost who looked at him stunned and a little fearful. "Look, keep it down a little will you. People are trying to sleep."

He left, leaving a bewildered Box Ghost to his boxes. He went back to his sleeping bag and tried to sleep again, but it wouldn't come.

"_Hello boys and girls, we have a new member to our family here. This is Daniel Fisher. Daniel, these are Julie Parker, Amanda McMurphy, Tom Zabrinsky, Albert Carey and Taylor Green." Danny looked at the five teenagers in the room, who stared back at him in various degrees of boredom._

_ "Come," Mrs Jones said, "I'll show you to your room. Come along now."_

He pushed the memory away. He wondered if he had made a mistake, leaving the foster home like that, trying to make it on his own. He hadn´t done very well, drifting from one place to another, working odd jobs that barely paid enough to buy him food, let alone clothes. In the end he had just taken what he needed, which had been easy with his ghost powers. He had slept in run down buildings or under bridges, fending off drunks, bums, drug dealers. Finally he had hitched his way to Amity Park.

At four in the morning he gave up, got out of his sleeping bag and transformed into Danny Phantom. He shot up in the night sky and flew around randomly, like he used to, and took in the familiar buildings and streets, the warehouses at the docks, the school. He supposed he could still do his job as a ghost hunter, but he would need a thermos.

"No time like the present," he thought and flew over to Fenton Works.

He quickly phased himself through the walls into the basement and looked around.

"Thermos, thermos," he muttered to himself.

He checked the shelves and the closets. The Fenton Portal, he was happy to see, was firmly closed. Just as he spotted a thermos sitting on the cluttered desk, a loud alarm started blaring through the house.

"Crap, ghost alarm."

He snatched the thermos and fled, before they could blast him.

* * *

_I am somehow not completely happy with this chapter but I can't make it any better than this. Review please?_

_As for updates, until my other story is finished, updates for this one will be irregular.  
_


	4. Old enemies

A/N: Alright alright, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I suck at titles. There. Changed it. PM me if you can think of a better one...:)

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Old enemies

Danny quickly put the lid on the thermos, effectively sealing Technus inside. Then he looked around the computer store, to see if anybody was hurt. The store was empty and virtually destroyed, new computers and equipment lying everywhere in one great rubble. He was hovering about three feet above the counter and saw that the cash register was still open. He was tempted for a moment, the little voice in his head urging him to take some, nobody was there, nobody would see, they wouldn't know it was him.

"_I_ would know," he thought and drifted through the ceiling.

He really didn't need to steal anything now, he had a job. A lousy job with very low pay, but still a job. He just hoped he would be able to keep it this time. He sat on the roof of the mall and watched the sun set in a brilliant display of red and orange colors, lighting the clouds from below.

He strapped the thermos securely on his back. Tonight he would attempt to empty it into the ghost zone at Fenton Works. It was getting a little crowded in there, with not only Technus, but also the Box Ghost, three ghost rats and a giant ghost squid. It had been ridiculously easy to beat Technus. He remembered he used to have some trouble defeating the technology obsessed ghost in the past, but this had hardly been a fight.

"Vlad's training paying off," he thought and shuddered involuntarily. He did not want to think about Vlad's training. Ever.

He got up and hovered above the roof, trying to decide where to go next. In the distance he could see a small figure flying above the roof tops outlined against the almost set sun.

"Oh no," he muttered, but before he could take off, she spotted him.

He saw her turn and kick the accelerator on her hover board, flying straight at him. He waisted no time, but took off at his maximum speed, twisting and turning to avoid the blasts from her ecto cannon.

"Hold still spook," she yelled at him.

He laughed at that. "Come on Valerie," he shouted as he evaded yet another shot from her, "Aren't you getting tired of not catching me...ouch!"

"Got you! Give it up spook," Valerie shouted.

Danny was holding his left arm and glared at her. "Yeah right, I'm gonna sit here and let you blast me to kingdom come! So not doing that!"

With that, he let himself fall to the ground, and then right through, intangible. He moved through the ground several hundred yards before he peeked his head through, invisible. And got run over by a truck. It didn't matter of course, since he was intangible, but it did give him a bad shock nonetheless.

He let himself drift out of the ground, still both invisible and intangible and looked around. Even though Valerie couldn't see him, that didn't mean she wouldn't be able to detect him some other way. The safest course of action now would be to find a secluded place to transform. Then he wondered about her equipment, now that Vlad was no longer around to supply her.

Just as he thought it would be safe to put himself down on the ground in an alley, she suddenly was there again, cannons blazing. She obviously could see him through her visor so he let go of the invisibility and took off again, full speed. This was getting really annoying. He twisted and turned as he sped on, flying over the outskirts of Amity Park, moving the fight to a less populated area.

He got hit again twice and he was getting tired. He felt his anger rising at her persistence and her disregard of her surroundings. She was causing a lot of damage and he hadn't fired a single shot. Still, he knew they would blame all damage on him.

He turned unexpectedly and fired a single ecto beam at her, sending her ecto gun flying. In the back of his mind, something started to push it's way out. He knew instantly what was happening and he desperately tried to push it back. But he felt his anger increase as she took out an ever bigger gun and aimed it right at him.

In an instant he was on top of her, wrenched the gun from her hand and pushed her off her hover board. With a shriek she fell and the hover board quickly picked up speed to catch her. Danny threw the gun in the air and blasted it. It exploded. Then he looked down to see if the hover board had caught Valerie. At that point, he didn't really care, but he saw her sitting on it, about ten feet above the ground.

He lowered himself to her and just as she was getting up he landed on her hover board, behind her. She swirled as she felt the slight weight shift and took a small step back when she saw his angry face. He grabbed the front of her suit and pulled her close.

"Look. Right now I really don't care whether you live or die. Back off. If you come after me again I won't hold back. You don't stand a chance against me. The only reason you're still alive is that I _really don't want to kill you_."

He felt something shift inside of him and he knew his eyes flashed red for a moment. He let go of the stunned girl and flew away, looking back every now and then to see if she was following him. He heard her yelling at him in the distance. For a moment he wished she would try to follow him, so he could take care of her once and for all, but he managed to push that thought away. He really needed to change back to his human form.

_He was standing in the debris what once had been the Master's estate, a slight breeze blowing through his now once again black hair. The huge castle had completely collapsed, with Vlad underneath it. He felt ecstatic. The destruction was complete, there was nothing left. The ecstacy was slowly leaving him, leaving him nothing but exhausted. He would have to destroy something else, he thought, to get that feeling back. He tried to transform, but instead went down on his knees. _

_He was too tired. He had completely drained his powers in the ghostly wail. Common sense kicked in. He needed to get out of there, so he stumbled to his feet and climbed over the debris, in the direction of the driveway. He could hear sirens in the distance and he wondered how long he had been standing there, in the middle of the destruction, feeling great._

_He got clear of the debris of the enormous house and quickly made his way to the woods in the distance. They had better not find him here. It was a good thing they were still quite a distance away, because he couldn't really run anymore. He was straining himself as it was, forcing himself to walk at a brisk pace. _

_The first of the police cars turned into the driveway just as he reached the edges of the forest. He jumped into the bushes and turned to look what would happen. He saw several policemen get out of their cars and just stand there, staring. Well, it was quite a sight of course. He chuckled and wondered what would happen if he was able to transform again and blow those police cars away._

"_You'll be hunted forever," a little voice in the back of his mind said. _

_"Get away," he thought, irritated, but the little voice was right. He'd better get walking._


	5. Back in town

A/N: I jinxed myself didn't I... saying I knew where I was going with this story. It totally ran away from me and it's refusing to go in the direction that I planned. Anyway, the good news is I got a new chapter out, the bad news is I have no idea what happens next. Or maybe that is good too, I can surprise myself. I do have bits and pieces written, I just have to puzzle them together in a way that it makes sense. If I ever make sense. Oh well, let's see where this goes...

Sorry about the rant.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Back in town

Tucker watched his friend approach him at her locker, looking unusually cheerful. He grinned. He knew why she was so happy all of a sudden, the same reason Paulina had been dancing in the hallways for the last couple of days. Danny Phantom was back. He had been spotted several times, fighting ghosts and sucking them into that thermos of his. It had been all over the news.

"Hello sunshine," he said to her.

Immediately she dropped her eyebrows into a scowl that matched her outfit better.

"Knock it off Tucker," she threatened.

He raised his hands and quickly made it out of there before she could decide to acquaint him with her boot again.

After school they headed to the Nasty Burger, as they always did on Friday afternoons. Sam waited patiently in the long line of students. They weren´t the only ones who had this habit. When it finally was her turn she stepped up to the cashier and stared at him. He stared right back, his mouth open. Then he regained his composure.

"H-Hi, may I take your order please?"

Sam blinked. "Aren´t you that drug dealer," she blurted out.

A look of anger crossed his face and he leaned forward.

"Are you trying to get me fired," he hissed.

Sam quickly shook her head and ordered. Then she walked over to their usual table and waited for Tucker to complete his order. She had a very good view on the cashier from where she sat and she studied him. He was wearing the usual Nasty Burger outfit but underneath it she could see a blue t-shirt. Sticking out under his long sleeved shirt he had something that looked suspiciously like spiked wristbands. His unruly black hair was a bit too long and kept falling in front of his eyes. He glanced in her direction and quickly looked away when he saw that she was looking at him. She blushed.

A loud crash ended her contemplations of the blue-eyed cashier. She stared at the large hole in the wall where a ghost in a metallic suit appeared.

"Where are you whelp! I heard you were back!" he yelled, looking around at the panicked crowd.

People were screaming and running for the door, pushing the chairs and tables away. Sam was pinned against the wall by one of them.

"Hrmmpf," she groaned and tried to push the table away but it was stuck.

From the corner of her eyes she saw a bright white flash and then she heard a voice saying, "Skulker! Man, have I missed you! I mean, have I missed kicking your but!"

At that, the robotic ghost was hit by a powerful ecto blast that threw him into the wall. Sam craned her neck to see who was talking, but she already knew. The restaurant was completely empty now except for Sam who was still sitting on the bench, trying to hide. The ghost boy drifted into view and the ghost called Skulker got up and threw a glowing green net at him, which he avoided easily.

"Really Skulker," Phantom said, "I gave you five months and this is what you come up with?" And then he saw Sam.

"Crap," he said and paid for his inattention by being hit by an ecto blast from Skulker.

He hit the counter in a loud crash and slid to the floor, dazed for a moment. Skulker approached him confidently, but if he thought he had him he was wrong. Phantom quickly went intangible, sank through the floor to come up behind the ghost. He extended both hands and blasted Skulker from behind. Now it was the ghost´s turn to fall on the floor, dazed. Phantom gave him no time to get up but sucked him into the thermos. Sam watched him as he stood there for a moment as if catching his breath and then he turned to her.

"Are you OK?," he asked as he quickly removed the pile of tables in front of her.

"Yeah," she said shakily.

He helped her out of her booth, looking at her with big, concerned, green eyes. And got blasted in the back. He yelped in pain and fell forward, right into her arms. While she tried to hold him up, Sam heard the all to familiar buzzing of a hover board.

"There you are, ghost boy," the Red Huntress shouted.

"Valerie," Phantom groaned and looked up at Sam. "Gotta go," he said and vanished.

"NO," Valerie shouted, "Get back here so I can shoot you, you..." She stared at Sam, shrieked in anger and left.

Sam just stood there, looking at the damage. There was a big hole in the wall in the back, a substantial part of the chairs and tables were damaged and the counter was broken where the ghost boy had hit. Sam winced. That must have hurt. Then she heard her name and turned to see who was calling her. The blue-eyed cashier approached her, wincing at every step he took. Sam raised her eyebrows.

"How do you know my name?" she asked him.

He blinked at her and started rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, eh, yes well I heard T.. your friend call you that, yeah," he said, "Are you OK?"

"I´m fine," Sam replied, "Are you? You seem... hurt."

He looked back at the kitchen. "I´m alright," he said, "I was hiding back there and some stuff fell on me. My name is Danny."

He extended his hand and she took it, looking at the name tag on his uniform. "Danny Fisher," it said. People started coming in again, now that the danger was gone. Tucker spotted Sam and quickly ran over.

"Sam! Are you..."

"Yes. I´m fine," she said, still staring at Danny, holding his hand.

Tucker stopped and looked at them. "Wow. Talk about love at first sight."

They both blushed and turned to glare at him. He was suddenly struck by the familiarity of that scene, a strong sense of ´deja vu´.

"Hey you, Fisher," they heard and Danny shrunk a little, "Go clean up this mess".

The manager approached them. "You had better get out," he said somewhat rudely to Sam and Tucker, "We´ll be closed for the day."

Danny turned to get a broom and bumped right into Dash, of all people.

"Hey, watch it loser," Dash yelled and then he recognized him. "Hey, wait a minute, it´s you! You´re that drug dealer!"

The manager, who had been walking towards the cash register stopped and turned.

"What?" he said, "He´s what?"

Dash smirked as Danny backed away. "We caught him outside the school a couple of days ago, selling drugs to kids."

Sam gasped at the blatant lie. "Now wait a minute," she started but the manager brushed her away.

"I don´t want any drug dealers as my employees. You´re fired!"

Danny just stood there and quickly looked at the floor, but Sam could have sworn his eyes flashed green for a moment. She saw him clench his fists and she remembered how he had hit Dash the other day. But he looked up again and his eyes were blue.

"Fine," he said, yanking off the Nasty Burger blouse without bothering to open the knots, revealing his blue t-shirt and indeed black, spiked wristbands. "Go clean up yourself then."

He walked to the door, threw it open and slammed it behind him.

* * *

Danny stood outside the Nasty Burger, fuming. He lost his job. Again.

"Why me," he said to nobody in particular.

The door opened behind him and he glanced back, to see Sam and Tucker exit the restaurant. They looked at him and he looked back. He never thought he could actually wish he could go to school again.

_He was sitting in the study, staring out of the window as Mr Carter was trying to explain something. _

_"Daniel," he said, "Please pay attention." _

_Danny tore his eyes away from the trees outside and looked at his tutor blankly. _

_"I´m sorry Mr Carter, what was that," he said. _

_Mr Carter looked at him sternly. "I´ll have a word with your father," he said, frowning. "We´ve been over this exercise yesterday. You need to pay attention." _

_Danny scowled at him. "Look," he said, "He makes me sit here but he can´t make me do this stuff if I don´t want to." _

_The door of the study opened and Vlad Masters stepped inside. "Mr Carter," he said, "I think we are done for today. I´ll have a word with my son now." _

_Danny cringed._

Sam looked at the suddenly bleak expression on Danny´s face. 

"Um," she said, "This is Tucker, my best friend. Tucker, this is Danny, he, eh..."

"I´m _not_ a drug dealer," Danny said, his anger returning.

"I never said you were," Sam retorted, "Well, I did. I'm sorry. But if you were, you wouldn´t be working in this crappy place."

Danny laughed at that. "No I wouldn´t. And I wouldn´t be sleeping in... never mind." He caught himself. No reason to tell them that. Yet.

"Listen, eh," Sam continued, "Wanna hang out with us?"

Danny´s face lit up. "Sure. I haven´t got anything better to do now anyway." Yes you do you moron, he thought, you should be looking for a new job or you´ll have to steal again.

"Wait up, I have to get my coat," he said out loud and quickly went around the back to avoid the manager.

They went to the mall together and if they started out a bit awkward, they quickly adjusted to each other, joking about other people, running in and out stores, playing pranks on jocks and running away when they got caught. Danny was happy. He could forget his predicament for a while, pretend nothing was out of the ordinary.

"It´s funny," Sam said to Danny, "It seems like I´ve known you all my life."

Then she cringed, expecting a dorky reaction from Tucker, but he just looked pensive.

"Where do you live?" Tucker asked him as they were leaving the mall.

Danny made a vague gesture in the direction of his ´home´. "Down town".

"Where do you go to school?"

"Dropped out."

"Why?"

"Look, I don´t want to tell you alright. Just leave it."

Danny didn´t want to discuss it, knowing what would happen if he tried to explain. He looked at his watch and saw that it was almost six. It was getting darker outside. He would have to leave soon, he knew of some restaurants that were hiring people to wash dishes, they would be open now. If he got lucky he would get something to eat there too. But there was one last thing he had to ask his friends.

"Do you know the Fentons?"

To his disappointment Sam and Tucker shook their heads.

"We know of them of course," Sam said, "The ghost hunter. Mr Fenton sometimes comes when there is a ghost attack at the school. But I don't know who causes more damage, the ghost or him."

Danny was puzzled. "What about Mrs Fenton?" he asked.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. I heard she was ill. We never see her. Why the questions?"

Danny had gone pale. "Um, what's wrong with her?" he tried to ask casually, but he couldn't keep the emotion from his voice.

Sam looked at him suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?" she asked and Danny jumped up.

"Look, just tell me alright, I just want to know. I... I used to know her and I want to know how she's doing."

"So why don't you ask _them _then," Tucker said to a frustrated Danny.

His eyes flashed green for a moment and he quickly looked away, balling his fists. Sam looked apprehensively at his suddenly aggressive stance.

"My mom told me," she said quickly, "She is in a nursing home. She is mentally ill. She kept searching for her son, but she doesn't have one."

Danny walked away a few paces. "Um, see you later," he said without turning around and took off, leaving Sam and Tucker to stare at his back.

* * *

_Updates whenever inspiration hits me._


	6. Thief

A/N: Ha! I was out camping for a couple of days and I thought up two new chapters for this story, a one shot and maybe a story line for a sequel to 'Hellbound'. Incredible huh.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Thief

Saturday was a gloomy day. It had been raining all day and Sam had spent the day mostly in her room, chatting with Tucker on her computer, because Tucker was sick. She logged off when she got tired of his complaints and looked outside. Inevitably, her thoughts returned to Danny Fisher. She wondered what he was doing. Probably trying to find a job, she thought. Why did he drop out of school? He seemed like a smart guy.

She saw that the rain had stopped and decided that she needed some fresh air. She stepped outside, yelling to her mother that she would be back later and started to walk aimlessly. She walked past the school, through the park and then down a street that had a few shops in it. She stopped at a bookstore, went inside to leaf through some books and left without buying anything.

It started to rain again, but she didn´t mind. She looked up and down the street, trying to decide which way to go, when she saw Danny leave a small super market. She wanted to call out to him but something in his behaviour stopped her. She dove behind a car instead and watched him as he quickly scanned the area, walked away and dove into an alley.

Now curious, Sam followed him. She slowed down when she reached the alley and carefully peered around the corner. Danny was fishing something from inside his jacket and she saw a loaf of bread, two apples and some candy bars. He opened one of the latter and quickly stuffed it into his mouth. Sam stepped around the corner.

"Did you steal all that?"

She wasn´t prepared for his reaction. He dropped the food instantly, grabbed her wrists and pinned her against the wall, his eyes narrow and his mouth a thin line. Then he recognized her.

"Crap," he said, letting her go, "You scared the hell out of me."

Sam rubbed her wrists and scowled at him.

"Well, did you?" she asked.

He looked at the ground. "Being hungry changes your morals," he said, "I haven´t eaten since yesterday morning."

He looked at the spilled food, picked up a dented apple and wiped it clean on his jacket.

"So, you´re not just a drop out, you´re a run away," Sam said.

Danny shrugged and took a bite from the apple. Then he picked up the rest of the food and stuffed it into his jacket again. He shivered from the cold rain that was dripping from his hair.

"You´ll catch a cold," Sam told him, "Why don´t you come with me to my house. It´ll be warm and dry and..."

Danny shook his head. "I don´t mind the cold. Your parents will hate me. I´ll just go... to the place I´m staying at right now. I have to try and get a job later, I really don´t have time to come with you."

Well, her parents would hate him, she mused. Still... she grabbed her wallet and took out her last twenty.

"Here, don´t steal anymore please. If you need more just tell me, I´m loaded."

He hesitated.

"Look," she said, "I´ll lend it to you. You can pay me back OK?"

He took it and carefully placed it in his pocket. Then he turned and walked away. Sam waited for a moment and then followed him. If he didn´t want to tell her where he lived, she was going to find out on her own. He walked down endless streets, going deeper into town. The houses started to become shabbier, the streets narrower and dirtier. Finally she saw him stop before a burnt out house. She ducked behind a dumpster and watched him as he quickly looked up and down the street before entering.

She waited a moment and then went after him, to have a look a the house. She was shocked. Nobody could live there in that blackened building with no glass in the windows. I don´t mind the cold, he had said. Tentatively she pushed against the door and it opened with a squeak. She looked inside, but there was nobody there.

Now what, she thought as she stepped inside. Where did he go? Did he leave through one of the back windows? Then why was he so paranoid before entering the house? She looked up at the partially gone ceiling. She could almost see straight through to the roof. There were no stairs. She dismissed the thought that he was up there somehow. He must have left and she missed it. Sighing, she turned around and left.

She walked down the street again, looking left and right to find out which way was home. Suddenly she was surrounded.

"Hello pretty girl," one of the young men said, "Whatcha doin here all by yourself?"

* * *

Danny slowly let out the breath he had been holding, when he heard Sam leave. He had walked all the way, counting his steps, to clear his head. How had he not noticed she had been following him? He had let his mind wander, that´s why. He thought he would have learned by now that he should pay close attention to his surroundings.

He sat down on his sleeping bag and took out a slice of bread. He remembered the look on Sam´s face when she found out he was a thief. Suddenly he wasn´t so hungry anymore. _Being hungry changes your morals_. Yeah right.

_Danny took a deep breath. He knew they were watching him, didn't trust him. He looked like the tramp he was, shabby clothes, dirty hands and face. He also knew they couldn't catch him. Something inside him chuckled darkly at that and he tried to push it away._

_He walked behind the racks with clothes and started rummaging through the jackets. He needed one, it was cold outside and he had almost died last night. But he didn't have any money._

_When he finally found what he was looking for he placed it on the side of the rack and walked away. He could feel their eyes in his back, but he ignored it. Instead, he walked out the door and dove into the alley next to the store. He turned himself invisible and intangible and walked right into the store again, grabbed the jacket and left through the wall so the alarm wouldn't go off._

_He let go of the invisibility as soon as he was outside and leaned against the wall for support. He wasn't just cold, he was also very hungry and the use of his ghost powers was almost too much. He'd have to steal some food next._

Again he shivered. He had said he didn´t mind the cold but now he was _very_ cold. He took off his wet jacket and was about to climb into his sleeping bag when a thought hit him. Sam was out there, alone, in a bad neighbourhood. He had let her walk away, unprotected. 

He rushed to the window and peered outside. The rain was falling steady now, the street had a wet gleam to it. It actually looked cleaner now. He saw some people in the distance and stared at them, trying to see what they were doing. And then he felt it. A short spike of fear. He gasped and backed away from the window. That might be Sam. His teeth were clattering now from the cold and he had trouble going ghost.

He felt the fear more acutely now that he was in his ghost form. He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind as he flew out of the window towards the people who were pushing somebody against the wall. He felt a rage rise in him when he saw one of the men slapping Sam´s face. He descended , kicked him out of the way and grabbed Sam.

He flew to the roof of the building next to his own and sat her down on it. He let go of her as if she was burning and backed away a few paces.

"Phantom."

He looked up at her. She was smiling at him.

"Thank you."

He just nodded. "Come," he said, "I´ll fly you home."

* * *

_What do you think? Should I go on vacation more often or should I forever stay at home and keep my stories where they belong, in my head. The next chapter is short and sad and will be up whenever I'm done editing it.  
_


	7. Memories

A/N: Ow. This story is getting more dramatic by the minute...

Question: I'm messing around with these separation line things. First I didn't have them, then I decided to put them around the flashbacks to make it clearer and then I also wanted to put them whenever there was a changing third-person point of view. Anyway, I left them out in this chapter. Flashbacks in _italics_. Changing point of view (not in this chapter): line. Does this work?

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Memories

She was sitting by herself, humming. The rain was splashing against the window and she watched in fascination as the droplets made tiny traces on the glass. She extended her hand to touch the window but flinched as she felt the restraint on her wrist.

Tears welled up in her eyes but she pushed them back. Crying wouldn´t help her. Nothing could help her. She knew she was right, everybody else was wrong, why couldn´t she convince them that her son was missing. He wasn´t some figment of her imagination, her beautiful baby boy with his black hair and icy blue eyes that always smiled at her.

Smiled at her in every direction she looked, the white walls, the heavy door, even the rain soaked window. And then she was crying. The medication made her light headed and disoriented. She didn´t know how long she had been there, but it felt like a very long time. Jack and Jazz came to visit her sometimes and then they looked at her with those sad eyes. But she only saw her son´s eyes and she hardly acknowledged them anymore.

"_Where is Danny?" _

_Jack looked at her strangely. "Who?" _

_"Come on, Jack, you remember your own son?"_

She had run up to his room, to find it full of boxes with stuff from the shed. Jack had beamed happily at her. 

"See? I cleaned the shed," he had said.

She had franticly searched the house for their photo albums, but they were nowhere to be found. All the pictures were gone, even the one on the wall with the whole family in it had been replaced by one with only her, Jack and Jazz. She remembered that picture. Danny had taken it.

_They were at the park, it was the fourth of July. They were waiting for the fireworks, but it was still too light out. Danny had been away with his friends, but he had joined them when Sam and Tucker had joined their parents. Jazz was standing beside her mother, looking somewhat embarrassed. _

_"Come on Jazz, smile," Danny yelled and just as she had looked up in surprise he took the shot._

She closed her eyes. It felt so... empty without her family, without her son. She had kept setting the table for four people, manically asking everybody where Danny was, driving around town to find him. She had gone to Tucker and Sam but they had looked at her in surprise and had denied ever knowing her son. She had stopped at every black haired boy she had seen, grabbing them by their arms and looking into their shocked eyes.

"_Maddie?" _

_She opened her eyes, looking at Jack. _

_"Maddie, there are some nice people here who are going to take you to the hospital now." _

_He laid a gentle hand on her arm but she shook it away. She rose from the bed and stared at the men in the white coats. _

_"I´m not sick," she said hoarsely and lunged at them. _

_She managed to take out two before somebody stuck a needle in her and everything went black._

And now she sat there, staring out of the window. She couldn´t go out go look for her son now, they had locked her away. She had tried to leave at first but they had soon put a stop to that, saying she was ill, she was a danger to herself.

She was humming a lullaby, one she used to sing to Danny when he was little. How he had grown the last years. She sometimes felt she hardly knew him anymore. He was always coming and going at the strangest hours, sometimes popping up out of nowhere when she thought he was with his friends. And sometimes inexplicably gone from his room while she hadn´t seen him leave.

And then there were the bruises and the scars. He hid them pretty well, but she had gone into his room that night after working on the specter deflector, to check on him. He was lying on his bed, shirtless. She had gone to the window to close it because of the chill, but had stopped to take a closer look at him. The moonlight lit the room and shone on his bare chest, slowly rising and falling. He looked... strong. There was an angry red line straight across his chest.

She had approached him and had looked more closely. There were more marks, almost faded away. The red one was just the newest, but it looked more than a week old. Where did he get these injuries? Fear had gripped her. She was going to have to talk with him tomorrow. But of course the next day he was gone.

She remembered it all so vividly. And yet, it had all been in her imagination. So they said. How do you imagine a son for fifteen years? She felt sleepy. The medication must be beginning to work.

Somebody was in her room. She felt it more than she heard. She turned her head to see who it was and her mouth fell open.

"Danny," she gasped.

"Mom," the shabby boy said in a quavering voice and then he rushed to her and hugged her as if he never wanted to let go. She cried because couldn´t hug him back.

Finally he did let go and she saw tears in his eyes.

"Are you real?" she asked him.

He nodded, wiping his eyes furiously.

"You have to get yourself out of here," he said hoarsely and then he looked at here closely. "What´s the matter with you?"

She realized she must look awful. "Medication," she said slowly.

Danny started shaking his head. "You have to convince them you don´t need that anymore. Tell them I don´t exist. Tell them you were wrong."

She didn´t understand him. His eyes seemed to swarm before her.

"Mom?" He looked desperate. "Mom? Can you hear me?"

She smiled at him. Such a nice dream she was having. It was almost as if he was really there.

* * *

_Review? Please?  
_


	8. Out of the woods

A/N: Ha, this one was easy. I already had the flashbacks and they take a large part of the chapter. And I'll stop complaining so much.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Out of the woods

Danny looked at his hands. They were white and raw from the water and soap. He had been washing dishes all night and the restaurant was closed now. He looked at the clock. It was a little after one o´clock. He felt very tired, but at least he had some money now, and a hot meal in his stomach. They had been leftovers but he didn´t mind.

He thought about his mother. He had managed to track her down but she was sedated and he didn´t know if he got through to her. He would visit her again tomorrow, he decided. At least she had recognized him. He wondered why she was the only one who seemed to remember him and did not have the urge to drive him away as soon as he made himself known.

"_Please tell us your name."_

"_Danny Fenton. I already told you that."_

_Dr Gregory shook his head. "Your real name. We've called the number you gave us. They've never heard of you and don't want you to use their name."_

_Danny closed his eyes, trying without much success to suppress the anger that was rising in him. It wouldn't do to go and destroy the hospital in a fit of rage. _

"_Well?"_

"_Daniel M... F... Fisher. Danny Fisher. I don't have any family." _

_He kept his eyes closed so that the doctor wouldn't see the burning red glow coming from them._

The owner of the restaurant eyed him suspiciously as he handed him his money. Danny pocketed it without comment. He was grossly underpaid and they both knew it, but this way no questions were asked.

"Do you need me tomorrow?" he asked, but to his disappointment the man shook his head.

"We´re closed on Mondays. Come back on Tuesday and we´ll see."

Danny stepped outside at the back door of the restaurant and took a deep breath, earning him a coughing fit.

"Great," he thought sourly, "A cold, that´s all I need." He stood for a moment and then stepped out into the rain.

"No matter," he thought, "I can always go intangible to get the water off."

He walked the short distance to ´his´ house, went inside and transformed. He frowned when he noticed the slowness of the transformation but shrugged it off. Once upstairs in his room, he transformed back and removed the water from his clothes by going intangible briefly. Then he let himself drop on his sleeping bag without bothering to take off his coat. He was asleep instantly.

_He awoke slowly. He listened to his heartbeat and breathing for a while and then tried to open his eyes. They seemed stuck for some reason so he brought his hand to his face. Or that was what he intended, because as soon as he moved a sharp pain shot through his body, making him twist violently. He uttered a long moan and then he laid still again, gasping. OK, movement was bad. So don't move. _

_He laid there for a while, still not able to open his eyes, listening. He heard a slight rustle, as if a breeze was blowing, moving the leaves of trees. The buzzing of insects. A bird, chirping. Then he realized he was not lying on his bed as he had first thought. He was on the ground. He felt leaves and twigs in his back. _

_Again he tried to move his hand, more careful this time. Slowly he brought it to his eyes. Something wet and sticky was on his head and in his eyes. He rubbed it away and managed to open one eye. He blinked to clear his vision and looked at his hand. Red. Blood red. _

_"What the hell..." he croaked. _

_At that moment another painful spasm seared through his body, causing him to cry out. After that he just laid still for a long time, staring at the tree tops above him._

_After what seemed like an eternity he tried to move again. Bad idea. After the spasms stopped he just laid there, panting. But he had managed to roll on to his right side in a slightly more comfortable position, and he had managed to open his other eye. He stared at the bushes around him. He waited. He could see the sun shining through the leaves of the trees, the shadows on the ground slowly moving in time. His mind was blank. Eventually he would have to move again. _

_He took a deep breath and slowly moved his left leg. That wasn't so bad. Now his left arm. Slowly he placed his hand on the ground and pushed himself up. That took nearly all the energy he had and he stared at the ground for a while, his head hanging._

_Finally he pulled his right arm from under him and placed it on the ground. Slowly, painfully he pushed himself up until he was on his hands and knees. Then he managed to sit back. He looked around, now fully upright. He saw nothing but trees and bushes. He was in a small clearing in the forest that seemed to go on endlessly in every direction. There was no sound, other than the wind in the trees, the birds and his own rasping breath. _

_He had been lying in the dirt, there were twigs sticking in his hair and on his back. He looked at the ground where he had been laying. Where his head had been, the dirt had a slightly darker color. Blood. His. He felt his head and winced as he touched the cut on his forehead, just below the hair line. Then he checked himself for other injuries. His arms were badly bruised and contained several minor cuts. The silvery metal bands were still there, but he hoped he was out of range now. _

_He grinned. Even in his human form, he could take out a ghost if he put his mind to it. At a price though. He lifted his shirt and gasped. His abdomen was black, caused by some huge internal bleeding. Well that explained the spasms, he supposed. He felt a little better now though, so the next thing he would try was standing up._

_After several attempts he managed to stand, leaning against a tree for support. He took a tentative step and crashed to the ground again. _

_"Way to go Fenton," he muttered as he slowly got up again. _

_This time he actually managed a few steps before falling down. He slowly made his way through the trees, moving from one tree to the next and grabbing them to stay upright. _

_After several hundred yards he stopped. He seemed to be going down somewhat, making it easier to walk in that particular direction. He wondered if that was the right thing to do. He could be inadvertently moving back to the house. He shrugged. He didn´t know, so it didn´t matter. He started moving again, this time a little easier. He was glad he had these unique healing capabilities, otherwise he would probably still be lying at the place he woke up. Or worse._

_Suddenly his feet splashed in a shallow pond and he caught himself before falling into the water. Water! He suddenly realized he was very thirsty. He bend over and cupped some water in his hand, but paused before drinking. Was this really safe? He could get sick... what the heck, he was thirsty, he would die of thirst before he would get sick. He drank some of it, it tasted muddy, and then he splashed some water onto his face to try and wash the blood of. He didn´t know if he was successful at it._

_He took a few steps out of the pond and sat down heavily on a fallen tree. The light began to fade somewhat and he guessed the sun was setting already. It must be later than he thought it was. He got up and started moving again when an electric jolt went through his body. He cried out and went down on his hands and knees, panting, shaking his head to clear his mind. _

_Two black shoes appeared in his line of vision, striding confidently towards him and stopping right in front of him. He looked up, his eyes traveling from the immaculate black suit to the face of the man he hated. _

_"Well now Daniel. I thought I taught you better than this. Maybe we should repeat the lesson."_

_Danny watched as Vlad moved his thumb to the red button on the small, shiny device he held. His mouth went dry. _

_"No," he wanted to say but the shocks already seared through him, making him fall on the ground and scream. After what seemed like hours but was in reality only a few minutes, it stopped._

"_Please stop," he begged. _

_Vlad bend over and brought his face close to Danny´s. "Well?" he said. _

_Danny closed his eyes. "Please, father."_

* * *

Did you notice? Reviews actually make me work faster...:) 


	9. Rescue

A/N: Um... short, again. Chapters don't seem to want to get any longer...

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Rescue

Sam was sitting in her usual spot at the Nasty Burger, waiting for Tucker. He had taken off right after school, stating he needed some computer supplies but it would only take a minute. So she had gone ahead and now she was sitting by herself, staring idly at the cashiers behind the counter. Danny wasn´t there of course, he had been fired a week ago, because of Dash. Dash had bragged about it all week until Sam had accidentally dropped her lunch in his lap.

She wondered where Danny was. He had been hanging around the school at the beginning of the week to talk to her and Tucker, keeping a wary eye out for Dash. He hadn´t volunteered any information about himself other than that he had a night job. He even handed back her twenty although she insisted he keep it.

"Alright," she had said, "But if you need anything, come to me, don´t... you know."

Tucker had stared at them in astonishment. She hadn´t told Tucker about how she had caught Danny but he could put two and two together as well as the next guy.

"You were stealing," he accused Danny.

"What of it," Danny had answered angrily and had left just like that. She hadn´t seen him since.

And now it was Friday again and she was thinking about a black haired, blue eyed punk her parents would never approve of. The door of the restaurant opened and a brown haired woman in a blue jump suit stepped through the door. Sam thought she looked familiar. The woman looked around the restaurant and when she saw Sam, she walked over to her.

"Hello Sam," she said pleasantly, "Do you remember me?"

"Mrs Fenton," Sam stuttered, "I thought you were..."

Maddie smiled. "I´m fine now," she said and sat down at Sam´s table. "I would like to ask you something," she said earnestly.

"OK." Sam wondered what it was about.

"See, people at the school have seen you talking to a boy this week and I´m trying to locate him. Could you help me please?"

Sam now looked at her warily. "What do you want with him?" she asked.

Maddie sighed. "I want to help him. He is all by himself, and the last time I saw him he didn´t look too good."

Sam though about that. Danny really hadn´t looked well the last time she saw him. Maybe he was sick.

"I know where he lives, approximately," she said, "I can take you to there."

Maddie´s eyes lit up. "Let´s go then," she said brightly, "Come on, the GAV is just outside!"

Just as they were leaving they met up with Tucker who decided to tag along. Sam gave Maddie directions as they were driving through the shabby streets.

"So um," Sam said, "Why are you looking for him?"

Maddie smiled at her. "He came to visit me in the... hospital and he made me realize I needed to help myself before I could help him. He said he'd see me when I got out but he never showed."

"I haven't seen him in two days either," Sam admitted, "I thought he was mad at us."

Tucker grunted from the back. "You mean me."

"Why?"

Tucker sighed. "He...I.. I said something. He just stomped off." He was silent for a minute. "He was asking about you the other day. He seemed upset when we told him you were...sick."

Sam nodded vigorously. "Very upset. I honestly thought he was going to hit you when you kept asking him why he wanted to know where Mrs Fenton was."

Maddie glanced at her. "You mean he was... aggressive?"

Sam sat very still for a moment. She didn't want to admit it, but she felt very protective of Danny and wanted to defend his actions, even if he scared her sometimes. But he hardly seemed to be able to control himself when he got angry.

"He beat up Dash the other day," Tucker volunteered. Sam glared at him and Tucker shrugged. "Hey, it was pretty cool. Dash deserved it."

Maddie muttered something to herself but Sam heard her anyway, "Danny, Danny, what happened to you..."

After that they were quiet. Sam was looking outside uncertainly. She didn't usually come in this part of town.

"Turn left, I think," she said.

After they had taken a couple of wrong turns, they finally stopped at the burnt out house in the narrow street.

"This is where I last saw him the other day," Sam said, "He went in there but when I followed he wasn´t there."

They all stepped out of the GAV and entered the house. Maddie looked around.

"What a terrible place," she said.

Sam walked to the back of the house and peered outside. "There is nothing here," she reported, "He couldn´t have gone out this way, it´s a dead end."

They were all quiet for a moment as they stared at the blackened walls. Then, suddenly, the silence was broken by a grating cough. Tucker looked up in surprise.

"It came from up there," he whispered.

They listened. Again somebody coughed.

"How do we get up there," Maddie said urgently.

Sam rushed outside, followed by Tucker and Maddie, and started banging on the neighbor´s door.

"We need to go through your house," she yelled at the grumpy man who answered the door and before he could do anything she already passed him.

"Hey," he yelled as Tucker and Maddie followed but they paid him no heed.

They rushed up the stairs, running through the long hallways with doors, until they reached the top floor, which was in fact one floor higher up than the burnt out house. Sam opened a window and climbed on the roof, followed by Maddie and Tucker and a fuming neighbor yelling obscenities. Carefully they made their way to the hole in the roof and lowered themselves to the top floor of the house.

Maddie was ahead now, her heart pounding. She made her way through the rubble as she searched the top floor and looked in the rooms. Finally she made her way to the front of the house with some difficulty, edging past the hole where the stairs should be and entered the front room. A boy with black hair that was falling over his face was lying on top of a sleeping bag in the corner. He wore a dark green jacket that didn´t look warm enough for this time of year and black cargo pants. His eyes were closed, his breath was rasping.

"Danny," she choked, rushing over to him, picking him up, holding him close to her.

He woke up. "Mom," he said weakly, "I´m sorry mom."

Sam and Tucker stood in the door opening, staring.

"I don´t believe this," Sam muttered to herself.

Mrs Fenton was holding a boy named Danny, which she had claimed her son´s name to be. And Danny called her ´Mom´. Something tugged at the back of her mind but she couldn´t lay her finger on it.

"We have to get him out of here," Maddie said decisively.

Tucker rushed up as Maddie tried to lift Danny. Together they heaved him up, each taking an arm and putting it over their shoulder. Sam looked at his things.

"Leave it," Maddie said, "He won´t need this anymore."

Sam silently agreed and was about to leave when she saw something out of the ordinary. She walked over and picked it up. It looked like a thermos, only it had the name "Fenton" on it. Maddie looked at it in surprise.

"Take that with you," she ordered.

They had considerable trouble getting Danny up on the roof, as he was in no condition to climb for himself. Finally they convinced the grumbling neighbor that it was in his best interest if Danny left and he helped them by supplying a rope, and then helped them get the boy down to the GAV.

They put him down gently on the floor in the back and Tucker and Sam sat beside him to keep him in place, as Maddie drove home. He was muttering the whole time but he didn´t open his eyes. Every now and then he had a violent coughing fit and Sam and Tucker looked at each other worriedly.


	10. Demons

A/N: You know when it happens that the words start flowing out of your pen all of a sudden (well, metaphorically speaking, I never use a pen) and the story starts writing itself... I did this chapter in an hour on Monday and I have the next chapter too. It's just that I like to sit on my chapters for a few days to see if anything else pops up in my mind (it almost always does :).

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Or NASA.

* * *

Demons

_He sat very still, in the middle of the large gym, concentrating. All his senses were open. He had been sitting there for an hour, quietly, while nothing happened. But something would, eventually. He was testing him, as he was always testing him._

_He could hear the random noises outside the gym, a sudden clanking, somebody shouting outside. Even though his eyes were closed, he could see the sunlight coming through the high windows, shining on the even floor and the bare walls opposite the windows. He could smell the dust, the tiny particles flying through the air. He could taste the dry air in his half opened mouth and he could feel the smooth surface of the floor through his sweatpants. The air was cold, almost freezing but the skin on his bare chest was smooth._

_But above all he... sensed. He had no way to describe it. He sensed the house, the people in it, the ghosts. More ghosts than people. He sensed the exterior of the house, the grass, the trees, full of life. And he sensed him. The hybrid, the one and only one like himself. He was close, watching him, waiting. Another hour passed. He didn't need to look at a clock, he knew. This time, he wouldn't disappoint him. This time, he would win. He was ready. He had pushed all his fear and anger away, they would only hinder him in what he had to do.  
_

_The attack came and he shifted into his ghost form in a flash, without a word. _

_"Don't speak," he thought, "Don't make a sound. He hates that." _

_He took to the air and lashed out with a dark green ghost ray at the demon like figure that came out of nowhere, gleaming eyes, saliva dripping from it's fangs. It recoiled, but only momentarily. He wheeled around to check his back. Four, no five of them! What was he thinking!_

_He shot a short glance at the window near the door and could see father's outline against the light, watching him. He had never fought more than three. Where did he find them anyway? There was someone standing next to the hybrid, a woman, he thought. Did she have something to do with the demons? He pushed all thought away. He would think about it later, if there was a 'later'._

_He was in battle mode now, but then so were the demons. Mindless creatures with razor sharp claws, their leather like brown skin looking wet somehow and having only one thing on their minds: his blood.  
_

_"Come and get it," he thought as he formed an arc of green light and slashed one that came close, simultaneously kicking another. _

_He wasted no time but dove under them and grabbed one by it's hind legs. He yanked the thing down and sidewards, right into demon number three as it was advancing on him._

_Five was too many. Before he could move out of the way again demon number four extended it's claws and gashed his left shoulder and arm. Green ectoplasm started to pour out, but he was already on the move again, darting out of the way to the side of the gym, so he wouldn't be surrounded anymore. They came at him, all five of them at the same time. _

_"You will kill for me." His words entered his mind. _

_"Never," he had said. _

_He charged up a powerful ecto beam, making his hands glow, feeling the tingling. Then he heaved up his arms, brought his fists together and released the powerful blast right into the first demon._

_It exploded. It slammed him against the wall and the other demons to the floor, dazed. He extracted himself from the wall immediately, subconsciously noticing the dent he had made. His back ached but he'd have to worry about that later. The demons were already getting up and he had exhausted himself with that blast. _

_"Gotta be more careful of how much power I use," he thought and he knew he would be scolded for it later._

_Again he formed the arc of green light and lashed out to one of the demons, virtually cutting it´s head off. It crashed to the ground and laid there, smoldering. He dove right into the middle of the three remaining demons and grabbed one by it´s head, simultaneously kicking the other two. Or that was his intention, but one of them dodged his kick and set his teeth into his leg. Danny couldn´t withhold a scream as he twisted the head of the demon he was holding, snapping it´s neck with a sickening crack._

"_Three down, two to go," he thought as he let the demon slip from his hands. _

_He shot an ecto beam at them to gain some time, but he knew it would slow them down only a little. _

_He was getting tired now and his movements were slowing down. He darted out of the way of an attacking demon, only to be slashed on the back by the other. He crashed to the ground and quickly rolled as the two demons attempted to crash into him simultaneously. They hit the ground a fraction of a second after he had moved away and he jumped up in the air, formed the sword like arc that was so hard to control for the third time and ran them through before they could get up._

_Danny lowered himself to the slippery floor and shifted back to his human form. There was black and green blood there, the black coming from the demons, the green, his. Slowly he walked to the window, ignoring his wounds. _

_"Did I do well, father," he said unemotionally. _

_Vlad offered him a broad smile as he walked up to him, careful not to step into the blood. _

_"You did well, my son," he said, but Danny picked up mixed feelings, love, pride and... fear?_

Danny heard voices, subdued, as if coming from another room. He opened his eyes and stared in shock at the NASA poster hanging right above his head. Realization dawned on him. He was in his own room, in his own bed. The curtains were drawn but he could see it was light out. He looked at the alarm clock beside his bed. Two fifteen PM it said.

He looked around, but he was alone. The voices sounded as if coming from downstairs. He took a deep breath and tried to sit up. The room started spinning and he quickly laid down again and closed his eyes.

He had been awake before, he realized, remembering his room in the burnt out house, how it had swayed and swirled before his eyes, making him nauseous. And then the scenery miraculously changed to this room and he hadn't been able to figure out where he was until now. He remembered voices talking to him, as if coming from afar, echoing in his head and he hadn't been able to make sense of them at all. But he thought he had seen his mother and someone in a white coat.

Someone entered his room. Danny opened one eye a little bit and tried to peek through his eyelashes.

"You're awake," he heard his mothers voice say in a relieved tone.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. She smiled back at him.

"How are you feeling?" she said, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

"OK, I guess. A bit dizzy," he answered, drinking in the sight of her.

An immense feeling of warmth overflowed him and he almost started to cry. Someone else entered the room and he turned to see who it was.

"Jazz," he said happily but his smile died when he saw the stern look on her face.

"How do you know my name," she said.

Disappointment washed over him again, like the first time she hadn't recognized him.

_He was standing in front of his home, hopeful, tired and a little fearful. If he talked to them, if they saw him, surely they would remember him? Even if his father hadn't recognized him a few months ago, Vlad's hold of them should be gone now that he was dead, it had to be. He was about to walk up to the door and knock when it opened and Jazz stepped outside. She stopped when she saw him standing there._

"_Can I help you?" She asked in a friendly voice._

_He knew what she saw, a tramp with dirty and torn clothes, his hair too long, his frame to skinny. But she was a nice person. She would help anybody. _

"_Jazz?" he said, "Jazz, it's me, Danny, your brother..."_

_Her face changed immediately. She scowled at him._

"_I don't have a brother. Get away from here you tramp! This is a good neighborhood. You don't belong here!"_

_She turned around and walked away, leaving him standing there. His shoulders slumped and he turned away, looking at the ground. _

"Eh," he said, "M..Maddie told me?"

Jazz stepped closer and examined him as if he were a frog in biology class.

"I know you're sick, but you'll have to go as soon as you get better," she said, giving her mother a stern look.

"Now look, Jazz," Maddie began but Jazz interrupted her.

"You only just got out of the hospital, you managed to convince the doctors you didn't think you had a son anymore and they let you go home on the condition that you would take your medication! You haven't done that, I checked the bottle! And the day they let you go you come barging in here with a boy called Danny and...and..."

Maddie stood up. "Young lady," she said, "I can make my own decisions thank you very much. The boy here has nowhere to go so he's staying. You would send him back to the streets? I've seen where he lived, it is not pretty."

Jazz was vigorously shaking her head. "We should call social services, they'll..."

"Put me in a foster home. I've been there. Not doing it," Danny interrupted.

He sat up again, this time with a little bit more success. Jazz stared at him and then blushed. He realized he didn't have a shirt on and the scars on this body were pretty obvious. He would have some explaining to do. Then he looked at his wrists, to find the wristbands missing.

"Where are they?" he said, almost panicking.

His mother looked at him worriedly and then took his wrist and looked at the ugly scars from an obvious burn wound. Danny cringed.

"Please," he said, "I need... I want..."

He looked up as Jazz handed him the black, spiked wristbands.

"Thanks," he muttered, slipping them back into place, covering the scars. Jazz turned without a word and left the room.

Maddie sighed. "There is just so much I want to ask you," she said, looking at his unhappy face. "But only if you want to talk about it."

He sank back into his bed and closed his eyes. "Sam and Tucker?" he asked.

"School," Maddie said, looking at her watch, "They said they would drop by around four. It's Monday by the way, you've been asleep for three days."

She stood up. "Get some rest," she said, "I´ll bring you some soup later."

She left and Danny stared at his wrists, fighting off his inner demons.

* * *

_Next chapter when I'm done editing it. I'm kinda busy this week but I'll try to get it finished before Sunday..._


	11. Proof

A/N: Alright, I've sat on this long enough, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

* * *

Proof

_Danny walked through the hallways confidently, knowing exactly where he was going. In the beginning the enormous castle had been confusing, but no longer. He knew every corner. He was allowed to roam free through the entire house, but not outside. His father didn't trust him that far, after the stunt he had pulled two months earlier. The thought of it made him shudder for a moment. Not the escape, but what had followed after. He would not make that mistake again._

_He entered the library and immediately walked to the side of the room with the occult books. He let his finger slide over the covers until he found the book he had been reading earlier and took it out. He had been making his way through his father's books, much to the billionaire__´s pleasure. He was finally studying voluntarily. His tutor still taught him and Danny tried to do the best he could but he knew he would remain a disappointment in that area to his father. And whenever his father was disappointed..._

_Danny glanced apprehensively at the metallic wristbands that were forever there. They were tuned into his ectoplasmic signature, father had said, making them very effective restraints. He couldn't go ghost unless he allowed it. They could be used for other things as well, none of which Danny cared to think about. There was no way he could take them off. Or could he?_

_He opened the book to the place he had left of and started reading the passage again. He had found it two days ago and he had been mulling the possibilities the whole day yesterday. In fact, he had been so preoccupied Mr Carter had complained about it to his father. _

_He was returning to the subject only now, because he had been incapacitated the day before. He read:_

_Ectoplasm, signature. A substantial ghost is entirely made of ectoplasm, as opposed to non-substantial ghosts, which are composed of an aura of spectral energy. It is theorized that every substantial ghost has a unique 'signature', making them identifiable. Some research in this field has been performed at the university of Wisconsin, but it was stopped before satisfactory results could be gained. See "Ecto alterations, Experiments on semi-ectoplasm" by Madeline Hayes, 1987._

_Danny flipped the page._

_Ectoplasm, signature alterations. A highly speculative field of research, mostly performed in private laboratories. In theory, a ghost's ectoplasmic signature will change if the nature of the ghost changes. This would mean that an identified ghost needs to be re-identified from time to time (experts estimate once every decade). _

_He sat back and thought about it. Could he change his ectoplasmic signature to remove the wristbands? Could he change his nature? He shivered. He was already changing._

Danny slowly got up from his bed and made his way to his closet. He put on one of his old pair of jeans and a blue long sleeved shirt that conveniently covered his arms and the wristbands he was always wearing. He looked in the mirror, expecting his familiar goofy face. He looked at an older person with a pale, thin face and cold blue eyes. He shook his head and tried a friendlier expression.

He heard voices downstairs and decided to go down and meet them. He was hungry too, he discovered to his surprise. Well, he hadn´t eaten in days. He started to walk to the door and was down on his knees instantly. Fighting off the nausea and clutching his stomach he made himself sit on the floor.

"Not so fast, Fenton," he muttered to himself.

* * *

Maddie was talking to Sam and Tucker who had just entered, when she heard a faint noise at the top of the stairs. She looked up and to her surprise she saw Danny, fully dressed, slowly making his way down, desperately holding on to the railing. 

"Danny!" she exclaimed, "What are you doing up!"

"Relax, mo..Maddie," he answered, "I´m just hungry."

She rushed up to him and caught his arm when he reached the bottom of the stairs. He leaned on her and she brought him to the couch. He let himself sink into it.

"OK," he muttered, "Maybe this was a bit too much."

Maddie smiled at her stubborn son. "I´ll get you some soup," she said.

When she returned, Jack and Jazz had joined Tucker and Sam in their examination of Danny. She handed Danny the soup, which he ate as quickly as he possibly could and returned the empty bowl to her with hopeful eyes.

"Puppy dog eyes," she heard Sam mutter and hope flooded through her. Was Sam remembering something?

Jack cleared his throat.

"Um, Danny, right?" Danny nodded, looking at him expectantly. "I´ve seen you before. Aren´t you Daniel _Masters_?"

Danny sat very still at that, his face even paler than it was before. Jack turned to his wife.

"A week or two after you were... in the hospital. Vlad came by and he had his son with him. That´s him." He turned back to Danny. "What happened? Your house was destroyed, your father missing...?"

"Danny?" Maddie asked.

_The black limousine pulled up in front of the familiar house with the huge sign reading "Fenton Works". This was his home, he had come home. Vlad opened the door and turned to him. _

_"Coming?" he said. _

_"Yes father," Danny replied sullenly. The door opened and his father ran out. _

_"Vladdie," he boomed and captured Vlad in a bear hug. A wild hope surged through Danny. Then his father turned to him. "And who is this then?" _

_Vlad smiled. "This is my son, Daniel."_

_They entered the house, following Jack Fenton into the living room. Vlad held a tight grip on Danny´s left shoulder, making sure he wouldn´t make any sudden moves. _

_"Jack, my friend," Vlad said pleasantly, "Where is Maddie?" _

_Jack´s face saddened for a moment but quickly regained his normal, cheerful outlook. "She´s... visiting her sister, yes. She´ll be back eh... later this week." _

_Danny felt Vlad´s disappointment through the sudden tightening of his grip._

They all looked at him, astonished.

"You´re the son of Vlad Masters, the billionaire?" Sam asked, "Why did you run away? Did you have something to do with your father's disappearance? Why didn't you just take some money with you, you didn´t need to steal, you´re loaded! "

Danny looked away from them. He was back to square one, they didn´t trust him. Even his mother looked shocked at Sam´s words. Well, it wasn´t nice to hear your son was a thief, he supposed. Suddenly his efforts seemed pointless. What was he doing here? It would never work, they didn´t remember him and his story was so unlikely that he couldn´t blame them either. Unless... he could prove something. He straightened, leaning forward a little, his eyes flashing green for a moment.

"My name," he said, "is Danny _Fenton_. And I´ll prove it."

Danny slowly got up from the couch and made his way to the stairs to the basement. His family didn´t move and he turned.

"Coming?" he said.

They got up as one and his mother quickly grabbed his arm as he moved down the stairs.

Once in the lab, Danny turned to face his family and his friends.

"Dad... Jack," he said to his father, "The Fenton portal. It is closed with a genetic lock."

"That´s right," his father answered, "How do you know that?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Tucker, would you try and open the portal?" he said, gesturing at the device.

Tucker looked at Jack, who shrugged. He approached the lock and pressed the red button with his thumb. Nothing happened, and Danny smiled.

"OK," he said, "Now watch this."

As he said that, he placed his finger on the button. The portal opened. They all stared at him in awe, except for his mother who smiled at him brightly.

"Fenton DNA," Danny simply said, as he moved to close the door again.

At that moment his ghost sense went off and at the same time something came through the portal.

"GHOST," Jack yelled, but before he could move the giant squid was hit by a powerful ecto beam, blasting him straight back into the ghost zone. The doors closed. They turned to Danny, who was holding an ecto gun, pointing it straight at Jack.

"_You can´t make me do this! I won´t do it!" Danny yelled at Vlad. _

_The billionaire looked at him angrily. _

_"I can and I will," he said, "You have nowhere to go, Daniel, you are MY son now and you Will. Obey. Me." _

_At that, he pressed the red button on the remote he was holding. Danny went down on the floor, reverting to his human form, writhing in pain._

_Vlad pressed the button again and Danny laid there quietly, panting. He stepped closer and bend over the boy, bringing his face close to his. _

_"We´ll start again," he said, stroking the boy´s hair, looking almost sad._

_Danny got to his feet and searched Vlad´s face, waiting for an approval. As he nodded, Danny shifted to his ghost form again and hovered, searching the room with the steel paneled walls. Again the targets popped up and again he started blasting them. They were just shapes, shadows of people._

_Then one of the targets that popped up had Vlad´s face on it. Danny held back the ecto blast with some difficulty and targeted another instead. Vlad did not like it when he was hit, even if only in a picture. Then his mother was there and he had no trouble holding back on that one._

_And then, again, the image of his father popped up. Danny felt the rage build inside of him. Vlad wanted him to blast his father, but he would never do that. He blasted the image of Vlad instead and turned to his enemy to look at him defiantly._

_Then he was down on the floor again, and this time the painful shocks seemed to go on forever. When it stopped he just laid there, crying. Another jolt went through him. _

_"Stop crying," Vlad said, "You´re pathetic."_

A silence came over the lab as they watched the boy glaring at his father. Then a confused look came over him and he slowly lowered the gun and carefully placed it on the desk. Maddie walked up to him, took his arm and led him out of the lab. Just before ascending the stairs she looked back at the gun on the desk. How had he fired an unloaded gun?


	12. Free

A/N: Ouch. Sorry, nothing useful came out of my head for a week... I tried working on my other projects and then when that didn't work I started a new fic which I really like but it's not DP, so you'll probably never see it. And I did a one shot. In fact I did everything but work on this story...

I'm posting this chapter and the next at the same time, I had them as one chapter originally but they just don't go together (you'll see why) and it got too long anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

* * *

Free

Danny was lying on his bed, his back to the door. He had been there for hours, trying to sleep, but it wouldn't come, although he was very tired. Too many thoughts were swirling through his head, very few of them pleasant. He had tried to kill his father. He had _wanted_ to kill his father. It was a reflex, drilled into him by Vlad.

He felt a raw hatred rising in him as he thought of his arch enemy and he had to fight to keep control. He clenched his fists and whimpered, trying to push the darkness away. He knew his eyes were red now and he closed them, desperately willing them blue again. He started to sweat, his breathing grew ragged and he didn't dare to move. He thought he had more control than this, but thinking of Vlad brought up all kinds of feelings that he had tried so hard to suppress. Finally he managed to relax somewhat.

He heard the voices coming from below, no doubt discussing his strange behavior. He wondered if he had done the right thing, coming home. What if he was a danger to his father? What if he lost control the next time? He had barely managed to hold back a massive ecto blast that would have seriously harmed, if not killed, his father. He had grabbed the ecto gun laying on the desk as camouflage, as an excuse for the ecto beam he had let go at the giant ghost squid that came out of the portal. And then suddenly he had found himself pointing it at his father. It had taken him a considerable amount of will power to put the thing down again.

The voices downstairs grew louder and then ceased altogether when the front door closed. He continued listening and heard someone come up the stairs, quietly. The door to his room opened, but he didn't turn around, still unsure of his eye color. Somebody sat down on the bed and touched his arm. He tensed.

"Danny?"

His mother's voice. She sounded concerned.

"Sweetie, what's the matter with you? What happened to you the last five months? Why won't you talk about it?"

He turned around slowly and looked at his mother. She looked tired and sad and he felt guilty, knowing he caused that.

"It doesn't matter now. I got away and that's all that matters."

_He looked at the metal wristbands. It was now or never. He felt a pain in his heart, knowing he was going to hurt father, but he had to get away. He hated what he had become... no, no, he was better now, stronger, superior... He took a deep breath and walked to the window. There were no bars there and there even was no ghost shield to keep him in anymore. The bars and the shield were in his head now._

_Vlad still hadn't dared to take away the controlling wristbands, although he hadn't had to use them in more than a week. Even his school work had been passable. Danny knew why Vlad hadn't taken away the wristbands. He was still there, the old Danny, tucked away somewhere in the back of his mind. It showed in his eyes, in the ever so slight hesitation in obeying Vlad's orders. But it wouldn't be long now, before he was completely gone and he became Vlad's pawn, his perfect son._

_That was why he couldn't wait for Vlad to take them off. By that time, he wouldn't want to leave. He wasn't even sure he wanted to leave now. He looked outside. The full moon was shining, giving everything a silvery glow. To him, it almost seemed like daylight and he squinted his eyes. Then he held out his arms in the moonlight and the wristbands seemed to shine a brilliant light, reflecting on his face._

_Now or never, he thought and he pushed all thought away. There was only one way to do this and he wasn't sure it would work. If it didn't, he was in for another week of torture, and Vlad would probably never take them away. But if it did... He shuddered at the thought of what would become of him if it did work. Would he be able to get back at himself?_

_He started thinking about Vlad, how he had hurt him, tortured him, beat him into obedience. He pushed away any feelings of loyalty to the man, love even. How could he even consider loving the man who beat him almost every day? But he had felt the love from Vlad, as a father to his son... the pride when he had accomplished something. Was it really so bad here? He could be so... powerful here, with Vlad backing him up. Only he didn't want power, he wanted his family back._

_He thought about his family, his mother baking cookies, his father with his crazy inventions, his sister, who was always nagging him about his homework. He felt the anger rise in him. Vlad had taken them away from him, but he still loved them, even if they didn't remember him. He. Did. Not. Love. Vlad. He called forth the pain instead, remembering the feeling of electricity soaring through his body, Vlad's smiling face as he watched him writhing on the floor._

_He started thinking of hurting Vlad, destroying him, beating him to death. Or maybe something more creative... he shivered as endless images of him torturing and killing father ran through his mind._

_The feeling started in his stomach. A glowing, burning sensation, making him sweat, making him whimper. His breathing quickened and he shivered as he let the feeling rise, the blind and raw hatred for Vlad Plasmius, his father. No, his enemy, his arch enemy, never his father. The room seemed to shimmer and he heard something, someone growl in anger. Was that him? He pushed away his upcoming fear and concentrated on the glowing red ball in his guts, feeling it grow, feeling it fill him completely. Something... shifted inside of him and he shuddered.  
_

_Was it enough? He was shaking now, blackness entered his vision. Don't black out, he thought, it'll all be for nothing if you do. You won't get a second chance. He concentrated on the wristbands and reached. He felt them, felt them respond to his ghost power. A burning sensation shot through his arms, but he kept at it, holding out his hands, pulling strength from the hatred, intensifying it. A small, red ecto beam shot out of his left hand, thrashing the mirror. _

_He heard running footsteps in the hall. Vlad must have noticed he was doing something. But it didn't matter anymore, he was committed. Again he formed the red ecto beam, more careful this time, hitting the band on his right wrist. He howled in pain as it burned him, but he used the pain to form an even more powerful blast. This time it came loose and he flung it away._

_The door flew open as he was panting from exertion. _

_"Daniel!" Vlad's voice screamed and Danny heard the anger and concern in his voice. _

_For a moment he faltered. This was his father, he loved him, cared for him, obeyed him always. He raised his head and looked at him. Vlad took a step back and Danny wondered what it was he saw. But he knew Vlad had made a mistake. Had he come to him, touched him, showing his anger and concern, Danny would have relented._

_Instead, fear spread on his face. Fear that Danny could feel. Fear that he could tap into, take energy from, use it as fuel for his hatred. And he did. Just as Vlad pressed the button on his remote, intending to shock Danny with the remaining wristband, Danny blasted him out of the room with a massive red ecto beam._

_Silently Danny followed him and stared down at him as he laid on the floor, his back against the wall. He could smell the burned flesh of Vlad's face and upper body, his left side was red and charred. Almost casually now, Danny blasted the other band from his left wrist and shifted to his ghost form in a flash. _

_"Vlad," he said and was shocked at his own voice. It sounded deep, menacing, inhuman. _

_"I have to change back," he thought. "Stop... I need to stop". _

_He drifted closer to Vlad and grabbed his shirt. He smiled. Fear was better from up close, it almost made him dizzy. Something in his head was screaming at him. It was annoying and he tried to push it away. Finally, frustrated, he pushed Vlad away and put himself to the ground in the middle of the hallway. _

_"Do it!" the voice in his head screamed, "Destroy it! All of it! You'll be free!"_

_He took a deep breath and let out his ghostly wail.  
_

* * *

Maddie looked down on her son, his tired face, the hurt in his eyes. 

"Who did this to you," she whispered, but he turned away.

She bend over and purposely brought her face up close to his, staring into his eyes, forcing him to look at her. She searched for something, anything, a sign that he was still there, her baby boy. But his eyes were empty, devoid of emotion and the expression on his face was guarded.

"Did Vlad do this to you?" she asked.

He stiffened, giving her the answer she needed. Anger rose in her. Vlad Masters, their friend, had kidnapped and hurt her son and somehow had set him up against his father. She had seen the look on his face when he pointed the empty ecto gun at Jack, first the anger and then the confusion, as if he didn't know what he was doing.

"I'll get him for this, somehow," she growled, getting up, but Danny caught her arm and shook his head.

"I took care of him," he said simply, "He won't be bothering us anymore."


	13. Mirror

A/N: Short. Very short. Not sorry 'cause you're getting this one for free with the previous chapter :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

* * *

Mirror

He was lying on his bed, staring at the strange ceiling. It was green, like everything else here, but it didn't seem quite solid. Sometimes he thought he saw it move, swirl, wobble. He was in the Ghost Zone. He took a deep, painful breath, and looked at the IV that was dripping into his arm. He didn't know how they had managed to get that here, in fact he didn't know anything, not even how long he had been here. Then he tried to move his hands and discovered that his entire left arm was covered in bandages.

The door on the far end of the room opened and a woman with long blond hair entered. She smiled at him when she saw he was awake and walked over to the bed. She seemed human, only when she got very close you could see she wasn't human at all with her slightly pointed ears and her sharp teeth. That and her red glowing eyes of course, no one would mistake those for human.

"Hello Vlad," she said pleasantly.

He glared at her, immediately suspicious of her tone of voice. She was always trying to trick him, betray him. She couldn't really of course, he held power over her, but he had to be very careful. She might be weak, but she was poison.

"Vesa. Where have you taken me," he demanded.

She pouted. "Now Vlad, is that the way you talk to the person that saved your life?"

She took his right hand and stroked it, but he quickly balled his hand into a fist and hit her. The ring, after all, was still there. She fell to the floor without making a sound. When she got up, he saw that her red eyes were burning with hate.

"Maybe," she hissed, "You would like to take a look at yourself!"

She walked to the side of the room, yanked the mirror from the wall it and held it in front of him.

At first, he didn't know what he was looking at. The face before him was hideous, severely burned. Part of his nose was missing and half of his hair was burned off too. Then it hit him. He was looking at _himself_. He started hyperventilating and raised his hand to touch his face. The monster in the mirror did the same.

_He_ did that, he thought, that... thing that had been his son had blasted him, burned him, turned him into a monster. He felt tears brimming in his eyes and he tried unsuccessfully to push them away. Maddie would never want to look at him now, his chances at her were lost forever. And he had trusted Daniel, he had been convinced the boy had started to like him, maybe even love him. He had wanted to share his power with him and the boy had _betrayed _him.

He pushed the mirror away violently and it crashed to the floor. He glared at his demon mistress.

"Take all the mirrors down," he ordered harshly, "All of them. Even the ones in your room."

He remembered her room. It was huge, a dark green carpeted floor, green walls, a huge king sized bed in one corner, cushions on the floor everywhere, inviting you to make yourself comfortable. And mirrors everywhere. She wanted to be able to see herself from every angle.

Vesa looked stricken at his command, but he knew she had to obey him. After all, he still had the ring. She obviously hadn't been able to take it from him when he was unconscious. Speaking of which...

"How long have I been here?" he asked her.

She snarled at him but answered anyway. "Six weeks"

"WHAT!" He almost jumped out of the bed and regretted the move instantly. "And the boy?"

She shrugged. "We can't find him. He changed his ecto signature. And all your equipment was destroyed."

"Have you looked in Amity Park?" Vlad asked at her, "What if he manages to get through to his family!"

"He can't go there," she said, "They won't accept him. I made sure of that. And he can't get through to them if they won't listen to him."

"You fool. This is Daniel we're talking about. He'll find a way."

Vlad leaned back and smiled. On his ruined face, it looked distinctly evil.

"He'll be there, he won't be able to keep away. Send out your demons. Let's see if he's ready to handle those over there. But don't kill him!"

Vesa smirked at him. "Still attached to the boy?"

She took a step back when she saw Vlad's eyes burn an even brighter red.

"I'm going to crush him so completely he'll wish I'd killed him. I'll make him suffer for this for the rest of his life! And to do that I need him _alive!_"

* * *

_Anyone notice the plot hole yet? Hmm, I'll need to fix it at some point..._


	14. Answers

A/N: Ha! Fixed it! The plot hole I mean. Don't worry if you didn't see it, pretend I never said anything. I was looking for problems where there weren't any and I was probably the only one who didn't see the solution.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Answers

Maddie sat at the kitchen table in the dark, a glass of warm milk in front of her. There were no lights on in the house, in fact the only light in the kitchen was coming from the huge neon sign outside reading ´Fenton Works´. But she didn´t need light to think.

They had managed to convince Jack, Jazz, Sam and Tucker that Danny was who he said he was. They had discussed it endlessly while Danny was sleeping in his room, trying to find some clue as to what had caused the general amnesia. They had bombarded her with questions about Danny, questions she found difficult to answer.

She wondered if that was part of the problem that they couldn´t seem to remember him. He was so very different from who he had been before, the goofy, clumsy, carefree boy he had been. He was so serious now, he looked so... old. And he wasn´t talking. The past few days he had been quietly moving around the house, watching TV, hovering in the lab as she was working there.

He seemed to be trying to avoid his father for some reason. Jack would pester him, asking him questions about the things they used to do that he didn´t remember, or why he had been at Vlad´s at the time. But Maddie was sure the constant questioning wasn´t the reason Danny was avoiding Jack. He had pointed an ecto gun at his father in the lab and had looked as if he had been fully prepared to shoot him. Never mind that the gun was empty.

"How did he shoot an empty gun," she whispered to herself.

What did Vlad do to him? The billionaire had mysteriously disappeared and his castle in Wisconsin had been completely destroyed. "I took care of him," her son had said. What had he done? Suddenly the walls of the house seemed to close in on her. She glanced at the clock on the wall. One AM. She made a mental note to herself to check on Danny later and grabbed her coat.

It was very cold outside and she pulled her coat close to her. She walked aimlessly, letting the slight cool breeze clear her head. Danny had gone missing in September, just after a few weeks of school. Five months later he turned up again, running, starving, sick, acting strangely. She mulled over that last thought. He had been acting strangely before, ever since he started high school one and a half years ago. She had blamed the bullying at school, but was it that? Would bullying cause all those scars? She shuddered.

She thought about Sam. Was that girl falling for her son all over again? She smiled to herself. Sam had quickly taken charge over him and he had let her. Maddie had entered Danny´s room just when Sam had been asking about the wristbands.

"What´s with those?" she had said, "If you´re trying to go goth you´ll need more than that. It doesn´t really fit with the rest of your clothes."

He had looked at her, Tucker and his mother and then he did the bravest thing ever. He took them off. The three had stared at his scarred wrists while he sat there, a blank expression on his face.

"OK," Sam had said, "Well, we´ll have to change the rest of your outfit to match then."

Maddie frowned. Of course there had been no reason for Danny to get his ear pierced.

Suddenly she found herself in the park.

"How did I get here?" she wondered.

She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn´t taken any notice of her surroundings. It was dark in the park, there were no street lights there. She looked up at the stars, remembering how Danny used to come here at night to go star gazing. He used to have this impossible dream to become an astronaut. Did he still have that dream? One of the stars seemed to be moving and she realized it wasn´t a star at all. The moonlight was reflecting on his white hair as he drifted very high up in the sky.

"Phantom," she hissed, regretting that she didn´t bring any weapons.

She refused to call him Danny, as he claimed was his name. What was he doing anyway? She watched him drop from the sky and plummet to the ground, only to pull up at the last instant. Well, if she couldn´t shoot him, she might as well watch him, maybe learn something. He was hovering a few feet above the ground, scanning the trees intently with his green eyes. Maddie pulled back a little, but he looked right past her.

"Come on out there," she heard him say softly, "I know you´re there, I can feel you..."

Did he mean her? Her question was answered as Phantom was suddenly surrounded by brown demon like figures with claws and glowing red eyes.

"Oh crap," Phantom said.

There were seven of them, snarling, saliva dripping out of their mouths. Before he could move one of them lashed out and grazed his leg. He yelped in pain and quickly shot upwards, giving himself some space to manoeuvre. He formed a green ball in his hands and threw it at the one that was closest to him but he missed and then they were on top of him.

He tore himself free and formed a green arc of ectoplasm and wielded it like a sword, hacking and slashing away, pushing them back. They came at him again and he slashed the first one, nearly severing it´s head from it´s torso. The demon plummeted to the ground and laid there, smoldering, a small streak of smoke coming from it's remains. Phantom darted out of the way, simultaneously kicking the second demon and running his sword like ecto beam through the third.

Maddie watched in awe. The ghost kid had improved his fighting skills in his absence. Jack had said he had gone missing around the same time Danny did and she wondered at the meaning of that. What did the ghost kid have to do with Danny´s disappearance?

Two demons were on the ground now, but Phantom seemed to be getting tired as he swerved and dove at top speed, blasting the demons. It slowed them down but it didn't stop them and one of the demons hit him full speed, slashing his chest with it's claws.

The ghost boy cried out and plummeted to the ground, right in front of Maddie. He looked at her in surprise and then jumped to his feet and pushed her aside as two of the demons rushed up. He turned and shot at them with both hands, neatly hitting each of them.

Phantom grabbed her arm and pushed something in her hands. To her surprise, she recognized a Fenton thermos.

"Please use it on them, not on me," he said hurriedly and shot back into the air.

Again he formed a green arc of light and started hacking the demons that came too close. He kept swirling, trying to prevent them from attacking him in the back.

"Suck them in," he yelled at her, "I can't hold off much longer!"

She opened the cap of the thermos and pointed it at the demons who were surrounding Phantom. He managed to blast one of them with an ecto beam and the demon was thrown back from him. She pointed it at the demon and activated the thermos, sucking it in.

Phantom was noticeably slowing down now and again one of the demons managed to get his claws on Phantom's body. Maddie winced when she saw the long gash on his arm, leaking green ectoplasm. But Phantom managed to kick it away from him and again a demon was sucked into the thermos.

The three remaining demons attacked simultaneously and Phantom barely managed to avoid them, darting out of the way. They crashed into each other and the ghost boy hit them with a powerful ecto beam and sped away from them.

"Now," he yelled to Maddie and for the last time she activated the Fenton thermos and the last of the demons were gone.

He landed on the ground, covered in green ectoplasm, looking weary. She walked up to him and he eyed the thermos apprehensively. She held it up.

"Where did you get this," she demanded.

"I eh... borrowed it," he said, "I can't capture ghosts otherwise."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you capture other ghosts?"

He stared at her. "I can't let these things run loose now can I," he said, "Somebody needs to capture them and I'm best at it."

She had to agree to that. "I´m not afraid of you," she said to him.

He chuckled. "I know. I would feel it."

She looked at him accusingly. "You would, wouldn´t you. You feed of other people´s fears."

"I try not to," he answered to her surprise.

She studied him and he looked back at her, looking as if he would jump up and flee the moment she moved. She took a deep breath. She was unarmed anyway, and this might be a chance to try and get some information on this strange ghost. He seemed inclined to talk rather than fight.

"Can I talk to you for a while?" she said bravely.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Your are not gonna try and kill me?" he asked.

She shook her head. "But nothing funny, ghost, or I'll suck you in here".

She shook the thermos. He hesitated and then walked a little closer, making sure he stayed out of range of her hands and feet.

"What would you like to talk about?"

She decided she needed a more friendly posture if she wanted him to talk to her, so she sat down on the grass, crossing her legs and motioned him to do the same. As he did so she took a good look at him. He was covered in green ectoplasm, it was slowly oozing out of the various wounds on his chest and arm.

"Do you need to take care of that?" she asked, gesturing towards him.

He waved his hand. "Later. What do you want to know?"

"Do you... know my son?"

He looked startled at that.

"Yes."

"How come you remember him while everybody else seems to have forgotten about him?"

"I´m a ghost."

"Do you know why everybody has forgotten him, except me?"

He shook his head. "Believe me, if I knew I´d tell you. But I suppose it must have been a... ghost." His voice trailed away. "Ghost... and I'm a ghost... so that's why..."

Maddie stared at him, but he didn't expand on it. He was probably right, even though Jack had been telling everybody for the past week that it had been a ghost. To him, everything that went wrong was caused by a ghost. That didn´t mean he wasn´t right every once in a while.

He looked at her strangely. "Were you by any chance wearing the specter deflector the day he disappeared?"

She thought about that. "I don't remember," she said finally, "But I remember I was working on it that day. I might have put it on..."

He had a point there. If she was wearing the specter deflector and a ghost caused the general memory loss, that would explain everything. But then why did Danny still have _his _memory intact? She decided to try something else.

"Do you know why my son was with Vlad Masters while he was missing?"

She didn´t expect his answer.

"Yes."

Her heart started pounding. Now she would get some answers. She leaned forward.

"You were there too, weren´t you. That´s why you went missing also. What did you do to my son! Why did he try to shoot his father!"

She had jumped up, glaring at him. If she had an ecto gun with her she would have shot him right there. He remained surprisingly calm, having long figured out that she wasn´t armed, but he did shoot a worried glance at the thermos.

"We were _both_ prisoners," he said.

She stared at him, his weary face, green eyes blinking tiredly at her. He looked defeated, scared even and somehow she believed him. Slowly she sat down again.

"Why?"

He sat silent for a while, looking down, tugging at the grass. He looked like a regular teenager, she thought. She suddenly felt the urge to ruffle his white hair and restrained herself. Why was he talking to her anyway? She had shot at him, hurt him and yet there he was, sitting in front of her, radiating coldness.

"Vlad is... crazy."

She started as he suddenly began to speak.

"He has a... thing for you."

She snorted at that.

"Anyway, he kidnapped your son to get to you. He wanted you to leave d.. Jack and marry him."

"Why did he kidnap you? How did he pull that of anyway?"

"He wanted me as his apprentice. Wanted me to be like him, his pawn, his... son."

"And Danny?"

"Him too."

Maddie was confused now. Something was missing.

"What aren't you telling me," she said accusingly, "This doesn't make any sense at all. What does Vlad want with a ghost for a son? Danny I can understand in some twisted way, but you?"

"Look, I know it doesn't make any sense. Like I said, Vlad is crazy."

She just stared at him. She had never really looked at him from this close before, let alone talked to him and he seemed oddly familiar. Green eyes, she thought, if you just looked at the eyes, where had she seen them before? She thought about Danny, how he had shot the ghost with the empty ecto gun.

"Did Vlad hurt you and Danny?" she asked, "His wrists..."

He looked at the ground. "Yes," he said softly, "he used some metal wristbands to control us." He looked up again. "I... I don't want to talk about it anymore." He vanished right in front of her.

She stared at the place he had been, his face still in her mind, the messy white hair, those eerie eyes... _and a tiny silver stud in his left ear_.


	15. School

A/N: Description... yes, I know I'm not really good at that. Makes the story seem rushed huh. So that will be one of the goals for this chapter: more description! But not too much because then it get's boring...Gah this is harder than I thought...  
Not much is actually happening in this chapter. _Next _chapter will be interesting though...

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

School

Danny studied himself in the large mirror in his room. Black hair, untidy as always. Small silver stud in his left ear, that Sam had convinced him to be absolutely necessary to go with the black spiked wristbands. She even bought him a small silver ring to replace the stud with in a few weeks. His mother hadn't been too happy about it and Jazz.. she had laughed.

Black long sleeved shirt and black cargo pants. Sam had picked out a shirt with a large skull on it and some chains to go with the wristbands but he had refused those. No need to go overboard with the goth look, he had said, he just needed an excuse to wear the wristbands.

And of course the combat boots. He was very happy with those, they were very comfortable. And Vlad would have hated them and anything that Vlad wouldn't have liked suited him just fine. He shuddered as he realized how easily Vlad popped up in his mind. Even though he had escaped and Vlad was gone, he still held power over him, he still controlled his actions. Sweat broke out and his breathing quickened. He would never truly escape.

He took a deep breath and then looked at his boots again, violently shoving Vlad out of his thoughts. He could really kick someone to kingdom come with those. Dash had better leave him alone.

He frowned at himself. He was still skinny but at least he didn´t look so deathly pale anymore. He tried to push the scowl of his face. No need to match his expression to his clothes. Then he sighed. He was trying to make himself look normal again, to turn back time to when life wasn´t so complicated. Well, complicated, but not nearly so much as it was now.

He didn´t exist. His mother had had the hardest time getting him into school, even going as far as starting an adoption procedure for him. There were no records of him and the powers that be blatantly refused to believe that someone could get onto their computer system and erase somebody from existence. Danny knew Vlad would have had the resources to do that and he wondered how thorough he had been. After all, his only purpose had been that nobody would go looking for him.

He'd asked Tucker to do some research and he had come back with the information that yes, Vlad had a son his age, named Daniel Masters. He was on record as having been born in Madison, Wisconsin, and his mother was... Madeline Hayes. He had decided to keep that information to himself. Tucker had found no trace of one Daniel _Fenton_.

In the end they had done a DNA test to prove irrefutably that Danny was the son of Jack and Maddie Fenton. The results hadn't come back yet and Danny was very nervous about it, because it would also show his ghostly DNA. But he had no real argument to refuse the test, they would have been very suspicious of him if he had. And now he was going to go to school again for the first time in almost six months.

Then he thought back at the ghost fights from last week. The demons, they shouldn´t be here. He didn´t know where Vlad had gotten them from and he had never dared to ask. He wished he had now. Twice they had shown up, the first time his mother had actually helped him capture them. And then she had _talked_ to him. It was a strange experience and he hoped that he had managed to get through to her that he really wasn't all evil.

It had also made him realize something else, something that had been bugging him all that time since he learned that Vlad had somehow erased the memories of everybody that knew him. He still didn't know how Vlad had managed to do that, but he was sure now it was a ghost that caused it and his own memory was intact because he himself was a ghost.

He felt a little uncomfortable around his mother now though. She was looking at him all the time now, watching him, having a strange expression on her face. Did she suspect something, had he let something slip during their conversation? He had managed to cover up the wounds pretty well, considering he had to do it all by himself, but he couldn´t disguise the fact that he was sore.

The door opened behind him and Jazz walked in, looking critically at the mess in his room. His bed was unmade, yesterday's clothes laid haphazardly on the floor, some of his clothes had fallen out of his closet when he had opened the door and he had been too lazy to pick them up. His desk was littered with stacks of paper, two empty soda cans and various CD's. She returned her attention to him, visibly biting back a comment on the state of his room.

"Are you done admiring yourself?" she asked, "Breakfast is ready. If you hurry up I'll give you a ride."

He smiled at her and followed her downstairs. Jazz was... Jazz. Whether she remembered him or not.

"Hi sweetie, ready for school?" his mother asked when they entered the kitchen.

"Yup," he said happily.

She looked at him suspiciously. "You sure are happy about it?" she said.

He grinned. "Never thought I'd say it but I actually missed it. Hell, I even missed Dash!"

He grabbed a bowl of cereal and sat down at the kitchen table where his mother already sat, reading some magazine. He could hear his father down in the lab, happily humming to himself while rummaging through some stuff.

"Dash doesn't remember you," Jazz said, putting some bread in the toaster, "So with some luck you won't have any problems with him."

"Dash had better not mess with me," Danny said darkly as he was eating his cereal. "And I already ran into him a few weeks back. He's spread the rumor that I'm a drug dealer and he managed to get me fired at the Nasty Burger."

His mother looked at him oddly. Danny paused his eating and looked back at her.

"Something wrong?" he asked, "I'm not a drug dealer, if that's what you're thinking. I haven't sunk that low."

His mother shook her head. "I was just wondering," she said, "Maybe people have a hard time remembering you because you are so... different from who you were before."

Danny slowly put his spoon down.

"I'm not different," he whispered, "I'm still me." He stared at his bowl, having suddenly lost his appetite.

_He was sitting on the chair in front of the desk in the small office of the foster home. The sun shone through the window, lighting the old wooden desk, the swivel chair behind it and the bookshelves on the wall. Rows and rows of books were on it and on top of the books there were even more books, stacked there because there was no more room. Child psychology books, law books, photo albums, a whole row of battered Shakespeare plays, some detective novels. He knew because he had been in there numerous times already. And always for the same reason.  
_

_He had his eyes closed and concentrated on his breathing. In, count to ten, out, count to ten, in... He felt he needed to walk to do his counting, but they had put him in here and had told him to stay. The dark spot in his head threatened to overwhelm him and he clung to his counting, imagining himself walking down that deserted road again, leaving Vlad's castle. Leaving. Never coming back. He heard voices outside the door, speaking hurriedly in hushed tones. He could hear them anyway, he had very good ears. _

_"What do we do with him?" Mrs Jones' voice said. _

_"I don't know," Mr Fielding said, "We already have him talking to Dr Johnson, but he can't get through to him either. We may have to put him in a closed facility if this continues."_

_Danny moaned softly. They couldn't lock him up, he'd go crazy. Well, more crazy than he was now. He hadn't meant to hit Taylor like that, it was just that the boy was so annoying, always prying, asking questions. Taylor should have known better, it was his own fault, he'd asked for it... He smiled. They couldn't lock him up anyway. He pictured them standing there whispering behind the door, the overweight Mrs Jones in her flowery dress and the balding Mr Fielding in his gray suit and white socks.  
_

_The door opened and Mrs Jones and Mr Fielding stepped inside. He opened his eyes, hoping they were no longer red and watched them apprehensively as they approached him and sat down, Mr Fielding next to him and Mrs Jones at the other side of the desk. The swivel chair cracked under her weight.  
_

_"Danny," Mrs Jones said in a friendly tone, pushing her glasses back on her nose. _

_He looked at her warily, knowing that tone of voice. Vlad had used it whenever he was about to punish him. But these were nice people, he reminded himself, they were just totally unprepared to deal with someone like him.  
_

_"Can you explain why you hit Taylor? You broke his nose you know," she said. _

_"I should have broken his neck," Danny thought, but managed to keep that to himself._

_He looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry Mrs Jones," he mumbled, "I didn't mean to hurt him." _

_Yes you did you wanted to kill him rip him apart break his neck tear his eyes out... He violently pushed that train of thought back. He had to figure out a way to get his old self back..._

"Danny!" He looked up. "Hey little bro, you spaced out. Come on, we need to go."

He got up, placed his half eaten cereal in the sink and followed Jazz to her car. They drove to school in silence, Jazz seemingly lost in thought and Danny still brooding over the memory that had suddenly popped up while he was eating his breakfast. Students were already milling the long hallways when Danny and Jazz entered the school, chatting at their lockers or just generally fooling around. Danny felt a twinge of both hope and fear as he watched them. Hope to soon be one of them, fear that in reality he never could be again. He turned to Jazz, who was hovering beside him, intending to mother him.

"Go to your class," He said to her, "I know the way, you don´t have to come with me."

She nodded hesitantly, waved and then he was on his own. He went to the office to get his schedule and then walked quietly to his first period class, English from Mr Lancer. Nobody paid him any attention.

Mr Lancer looked up as he entered and got up. Most of his classmates were already there, chatting and exchanging homework. Sam and Tucker were in the back and waved at him. He waved back.

"Attention students," Mr Lancer said.

Everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at him. He felt distinctly uncomfortable under their scrutiny and saw Dash´ eyes widen at the sight of him.

"We have a new student joining us. His name is Daniel Fenton. Mr Fenton, would you like to tell something about yourself?"

He was about to open his mouth when Dash spoke up. "Hi my name is Danny Fenturd and I´m a drug dealer and I can´t even hold a job at the Nasty Burger."

Danny closed his mouth again and glared at Dash.

"Mr Baxter!" Mr Lancer said angrily.

Danny leaned forward a bit and smiled nastily at Dash. "Well, you´ve summed it up hey Dash. But think about it. If I were a drug dealer I´d be _very _careful of what I said to me."

He was acutely aware of his steel nosed combat boots. He didn´t wait for Mr Lancer to tell him to sit, but walked right past Dash to the back of the room. Dash tried to trip him, but he managed to avoid it and smacked Dash on the head instead. He sat down next to Sam and grinned at her. She frowned at him and he gave her an innocent look.

"Mr Fenton," Mr Lancer said, "I hope you do not intend to start your first day of school in detention?"

"What did _I_ do," Danny said indignantly and Sam punched him. He bowed his head. "No Mr Lancer. Sorry Mr Lancer," he said.

He leaned in his chair and started doodling in his notebook, tuning out the lecture.

_He leaned against the wall of his prison. He couldn't sit down, his hands were chained to the wall. He couldn't go ghost either, the silvery wristbands prevented that. In his desperation he had tried though. He had reached for his ghost form through the pain, but he had been unconscious before he managed to form the white rings around his waist._

_Vlad had woken him up by throwing a bucket of water over him and he had stood there, soaking wet, shivering. He stood there for three days in that small cell with it's white walls and no windows, the blinding light hurting his eyes, without sleeping. Every now and then Vlad came into his cell and helped him drink some water. He had refused his help at first, cursing him, calling him names._

_When the time passed by, he started to look forward to Vlad's visits. He was always gentle, holding his head and letting him carefully sip from the glass. Then he stroked his hair or padded his shoulders, said "You're doing well my son" and then he left again._

_He had tried to sleep standing up but every time he nodded off a small shock came from the wristbands and he was awake again. All thought seemed to stop. His whole body hurt and he was shaking uncontrollably. _

_In the end, he started hallucinating. A blond woman approached him, smiling. She looked vaguely familiar, but when he tried to remember his thoughts just shattered.  
_

"_Hello," she said._

"_Where is Vlad," he rasped. He needed Vlad. It was the only coherent thought he was capable of.  
_

_She smiled and bend over, bringing her mouth close to his ear._

"_He's out," she whispered, "I am Vesa."_

_She stroked his hair and then held up a glass of water. He looked at it longingly. She held it up against his lips and he gulped it down as fast as he could, coughing. She patted him on the back, looked at him one more time and left._

* * *

Sam looked over at her new friend when she heard a soft snapping sound. She saw Danny putting down his pencil slowly and examine his hand. To her dismay, she saw a small red cut there. He must have cut himself when he broke the pencil. He closed his eyes and moved his lips, but no sound came out. Was he counting? 

She wondered if this was the way he used to be. Mrs Fenton had asked her to keep an eye on him, because he had a very short fuse and he tended to act before thinking.

"Don´t let the tough guy act fool you," Maddie had said, "He was a shy, sweet boy before."

There was nothing shy or sweet about Danny now.

* * *

_So, did I overdo it? Was it any good? Should I keep this up? It sure makes the chapter longer...  
_


	16. Fake Out Make Out?

A/N: Many thanks to all my reviewers!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Fake out make out?

The bell signifying the end of class got everybody out of their stupor and Mr Lancer raised his voice over the noise of moving chairs to assign their homework. Sam hardly heard him, but from the beeping sounds next to her she gathered Tucker was already typing it into his PDA. She would get it from him later, she decided, as she collected her books and glanced at Danny to see if he was awake. She blinked. Why did she expect him to be asleep in this class? He was already standing next to his desk, waiting for her and Tucker to finish as the class was emptying.

After leaving the classroom they split up as they didn't have their next classes together. Sam spent the rest of the morning worrying Danny would get himself into trouble with his temper and lack of restraint, but she had underestimated him. She spotted him twice, moving to his next class, looking extremely bored. But his face lit up every time he saw her and he smiled reassuringly at her, as if he knew what she was thinking. He really must know her well, she mused, trying to read a book during study hall with Tucker sitting beside her, fiddling with his PDA while pretending to study. It was very strange, having him around, seemingly knowing her every quirk and thought as if they spent years together, but not knowing him at all.

He hadn't told any of them what had happened to him, why he had lived with Vlad Masters, the billionaire, why something or someone had 'wiped' the memories of everyone except his and his mother's. When asked directly about it he would stiffen, look away or start fidgeting with his wristbands. They looked good on him, she thought, but she hated the reason they were there. Mrs Fenton didn't seem to know anything either, but she had asked Sam and Tucker to be patient with him, to let him come to terms with it. She was sure he would tell them eventually. Unfortunately patience wasn't Sam's best trait.

She glanced around the room where her classmates were reading, studying or doing something entirely different. Star and Paulina were having a whispered, yet frantic conversation in the corner, Paulina gesturing wildly and Star looking bemused. They scowled at Sam when they noticed her looking at them and she returned the favor. Then she looked at Tucker but he seemed engrossed in something he was doing, so she returned her attention to her book. She used a leaflet from the 'Skulk and Lurk' as bookmark and took it out to look at it again. It was an invitation for a poetry night she wanted to attend and she was debating herself if she should ask Danny to accompany her.

Every time she had visited him the past week she had been wondering if they had been...together. He was always looking at her, following her with his eyes, touching her when he wanted her attention. It felt familiar, yet strange and she had discreetly asked his mother about it, who had smiled knowingly and only said they would figure it out eventually. Which wasn't very helpful. And asking Danny about it was of course out of the question, as she didn't want to embarrass herself. She didn't know if Danny had ever gone with her to one of her Gothic events. Tucker never had, but that wasn't so strange. They disagreed on so many subjects it was a wonder they were friends at all.

The bell sounded and she almost fell out of her chair. She had been so lost in thought she hadn't noticed the others had already started packing their stuff and some of them laughed at her as she grabbed the edge of the table to steady herself. She quickly jammed her book in her spider backpack and followed Tucker to the cafeteria.

The noise there hit her like a shock wave and she flinched slightly at the loud clattering of trays, plates and cutlery. She distinctly disliked the cafeteria this time of year, when it was to cold to sit outside and the place was jammed. There was a long row in front of the counter and she stood on her toes for a moment to try and see which side had the salads this time. Tucker was already off to get his meat and since he went to the right she decided to try for the left side of the counter.

After getting her salad and claiming her usual seat at their usual table, she spotted Danny as he was pushing his way through the crowd, carefully holding his tray. He waved at her and smiled and then Dash bumped into him, sending his tray clattering on the floor. Dash grinned, made an obscene gesture and started walking to his table, where Paulina and Kwan already sat, snickering.

Danny stared down at his lunch on the ground, balling his fists and again Sam could have sworn his eyes flashed green. She groaned and got up quickly to head of any unpleasantness, recognizing that he was about to make a move on Dash. Not that she thought Danny couldn't take on Dash - she had seen him deck Dash before - but to keep Danny out of trouble. She grabbed his arm before he could punch the annoying jock and held it tightly, forcing him to look at her. He relaxed somewhat and after picking up the spilled food and throwing it in the trash, she grabbed his arm and dragged him to their table.

"Goth losers," she heard Dash call after them and Danny almost jerked his arm away.

"Leave it," she hissed, "It´s just Dash. He's always doing this! I know you could knock him out if you wanted to, but try to act like you can't!"

He stared at her in disbelieve. "How would you know how I´m supposed to act," he said angrily but he also looked guilty.

"Your mom told me you used to be shy and Dash used to bully you," she answered, sliding back into her chair, "Just ignore him."

He sat down next to her at the table and Tucker joined them a few moments later. He placed his tray across from Sam and she looked disapprovingly at the double portion of meat stacked on his plate and the lack of vegetables.

"You´re right you know," Danny said morosely, putting his head in his hands. "I didn´t use to be like this. I´ll try, OK?"

He wiggled his toes in his boots and shot Dash a dark look across the cafeteria. Dash smirked at him, but looked away when Danny kept staring at him. Sam tugged his sleeve, trying to get him to look at her instead of Dash.

"I´ve been thinking," Tucker said, trying to distract Danny while putting a large chunk of meat into his mouth, "They didn´t have any record of you in their student database."

Danny shot one last dark look at Dash and turned his attention to Tucker, his anger subsiding. He shook his head and slumped down in his chair.

"They did a pretty thorough job in erasing you. There was absolutely no Danny Fenton to be found."

"I know that. What are you getting at," Danny asked, pinching a carrot from Sam.

Tucker pointed his knife at him. "I wonder if they took the trouble to go through the archive. Your middle school results were on paper. They could still be there."

Danny blinked. Tucker, who could find anything anywhere in any digital form, always complaining about the weight of the books he had to carry around when it would be so much easier if they had e-books, having a backpack full of useful and not so useful electronics, suggesting they go through a _paper _archive?

"Tucker you´re a genius," he smiled and got up. "Lets go look!"

"What, now?" Sam asked.

"Sure. No time like the present. Everybody is at lunch. Tucker can be the lookout."

There was some logic in that, Sam had to agree, so they dumped their trays and left the cafeteria, dragging a complaining Tucker who hadn't finished his meat with them. They walked to the office around the corner of the cafeteria and peered inside. There was nobody there so they put Tucker at the end of the empty hallway and entered the office. Old fashioned gray filing cabinets adorned the walls. The rest of the room was filled with desks and computers of the secretaries and it had a cramped feel to it. Sam walked up to the filing cabinets and quickly identified the one they needed.

"Here is ´F´," she said, "It´s locked though."

Danny joined her and took a look at the old filing cabinet. It was of a type he was familiar with, they were easy to open without a key. Especially when you had ghost powers.

"This is easy," he muttered.

He bend over and did something at the bottom of the cabinet that Sam couldn´t see. Then he pulled the drawer open. She stared at him as he quickly began leafing through the files.

She heard muffled voices outside the door and looked up in alarm. Danny turned too and froze, just about to pull one of the files out of the cabinet. Shadowy figures stood behind the milky glass of the door, talking to each other. When the knob turned, Sam acted. She jumped up and pushed Danny against the cabinet. He fell backwards against it, closing the drawer with a thud. When the door opened, she firmly placed her lips on his.

She saw his eyes widen in shock and then understanding. Then he closed them and to her surprise parted his lips slightly, deepening the kiss. She felt his hands moving, one on the back of her head, the other on her back.

_She was running, holding the Fenton Thermos in her left hand, an ecto blaster in her right. She could hear the distant fight, the occasional green flashes between the warehouses at the docks. The place was deserted at this hour, the workers having long ago returned to the comfort of their homes. The light was fading and the alleys between the warehouses were already very dark and she passed them warily, aware of the fact that anything or anyone could be lurking there, supernatural or not.  
_

_She kept running, her combat boots thudding on the pavement, getting closer to the fight by the sound of it. __It had been raining earlier and the air was still damp, yet warm, and she was panting heavily in her effort to reach her friend as quickly as she could. __Danny had been fighting Skulker for thirty minutes now and she knew the ghost in the metal suit must have had some sort of upgrade, because Danny didn´t usually take this long. Which meant Danny was in trouble. She wished Tucker was here, but he was at home with the flu. _

_"Who gets the flu in summer," she thought angrily and then dismissed the thought as unproductive. _

_She should have called Jazz, but it was too late now. She almost slipped on the wet street as she rounded another corner and there they were, at the end of a narrow street, warehouses looming over them ominously in the orange glow of the street lights that flickered to light the moment she reached them. Danny was holding up a shield to protect him from Skulker's fierce onslaught, but she could see it was taking him an unusual amount of effort. He was really tired. Panting, but without hesitating Sam sank to one knee, aimed the ecto blaster at Skulker and fired it, hitting the ghost in the arm. _

_"Aaarch," the hunter yelled and turned towards her, distracted for a moment. And a moment was all Danny needed. He dropped the shield and and flew straight into him, flooring him with a right hook. Skulker plummeted to the ground, right in front of Sam, who quickly uncapped the thermos and sucked him in._

_Danny landed on the ground a little distance away from her and transformed into his human form almost before hitting the ground. He looked worn out, but he was grinning at her. _

_"Thanks Sam," he said and started to walk towards her._

_Then everything seemed to slow down. Suddenly, he was surrounded by brown, demon like figures with fangs and claws. They closed in on him quickly, growling, their red eyes glowing menacingly, oily skin gleaming in the light of the street lights. They weren't very big, no bigger than she was, but there were a lot of them and those claws looked really sharp.  
_

_"Oh no," she heard Danny moan and she saw his face contort in concentration as he once again summoned up his ghost half. But it was slow, she saw, he was weak. He would be no match to the demons. He seemed to see that too, because she could see the fear on his face when he had completed the painfully slow transformation._

"_Daniel."_

_They both swirled around, one on her feet, the other floating.  
_

_"Plasmius!" Danny spat. _

_The vampire like ghost floated closer and the demons parted to let him through. He smiled smugly at them and Sam felt her blood boil.  
_

_"My dear boy," he said pleasantly, "I´m here to offer you one last chance. Come with me, join me freely. Or suffer the consequences." _

_At that, Sam felt claws grabbing her, squeezing her arms. Something cold was pressed against her neck. Danny paled. _

_"No Danny," she wanted to scream but all she could utter was a strangled cry as the demon put pressure on her throat. _

_Then she saw another ghost, a little behind Plasmius and she got really scared. It was a... woman. She was very pale, with glowing red eyes, long blond hair. But what scared Sam was the darkness she was emanating. It was like she sucked out the light from around her, giving her a black aura._

"_Don´t... don´t hurt her," she heard Danny stammer. _

_Plasmius floated closer to him, holding something in his hands. _

_"Put these on and we´ll let her go," he said. _

_Sam could hear her heart beating in her chest and her mouth went dry. Danny looked at her and she looked back, pleadingly, trying to signal to him with her eyes that he shouldn't do it. The demon that had his claws around her neck was crushing her windpipe and her vision started to blacken. She saw Danny stretch out his arms and reluctantly take what Plasmius was offering him. They were some silvery, shining wristbands. Danny looked at her one more time and slid them in place. The demon eased his grip somewhat and she could breathe again.  
_

_Plasmius took out a small device and pressed a button on it. Danny screamed, reverted back to his human form and dropped to the ground, face down. Sam whimpered. _

_"You cannot take your ghost form unless I allow it," Vlad said. _

_Danny tried to get up and Vlad pressed another button. Again, Danny screamed and his body started twitching, as if he was being electrocuted. Sam tried to pull free but the demons that were holding her were too strong. Finally, Vlad let go and Danny just laid there, panting. The female ghost floated up to her and touched her face. _

_"Little one," she whispered, "Go home. Go to sleep. No more painful memories." _

_She stroked Sam´s forehead and her mind went blank._

* * *

Tucker had mixed feelings. Suddenly, he felt he had become redundant, a third wheel, with Sam and Danny pulling the ropes. They had convinced him of Danny´s existence, but he didn´t _remember_ being friends with him. And he had come barging in and taken his best friend, smiling that cocky smile of his, looking so strong and independent. He had swept Sam right off her feet, although she denied it and even if Tucker didn't view her in that way, he was still jealous.. So Tucker felt left out. But he couldn't help but feel sorry for Danny too. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if everybody you loved just forgot you ever existed. 

Lunch hour was coming to an end. He was leaning against the wall, eying the few students walking past him, playing with his PDA. He held his cell phone in his other hand, ready to call Sam whenever one of the secretaries came in sight. He hoped they would be quick about it, he felt very exposed standing there, but he didn't expect any trouble as he had a clear view on the hallway where the secretaries would be coming from.

He hadn´t counted on jocks playing pranks.

He was pushed aside and cried out in dismay when his cell phone flew out of his hand and landed on the floor with a crack. He turned around and saw Dash, Kwan, Paulina and several others snickering. They must have left the cafeteria early, in search of someone to torment. Unfortunately, they had chosen him.

"Hey!" he said angrily, "I still have payments on that!"

Dash picked up the phone and held it hight. "Jump, geek," he said.

Tucker jumped but Dash was too tall for him. Then they heard some commotion down the hall and they all turned.

"Animal Farm! Mr Fenton! Miss Manson! What do you think you are you doing!" Mr Lancer shouted.

"Oh no," Tucker thought and looked past the jocks and Mr Lancer into the office. The jocks started cheering and whistling and Tucker stared at the couple, engaged into what seemed like a very serious kiss. They broke apart, red faced.

"Detention for the both of you," Mr Lancer said as they left the office.

Tucker stood gaping at them as they approached him, still blushing madly. Dash threw Tucker's phone at him and he caught it, barely. The group that had been tormenting him a moment ago left, snickering at Danny and Sam as they passed them, pushing them and saying things like "Way to go Fenton" and "Ew, geek love."

"Some fake out make out," he heard Danny say to Sam and she punched him.

"You didn´t have to take it that far," she said and Danny looked to the ground.

"Sorry," he muttered, "I wanted to make it believable. Besides, I had to lock the cabinet." He started rubbing the back of his neck.

Tucker laughed. "That was believable all right!" he said, smirking, "In fact, so believable even you guys could believe it!"

They both glared at him. "Might I remind you," Sam said menacingly, "That we now _both_ wear combat boots?"

Tucker backed away. But before he could say anything to save himself, Sam turned to Danny.

"Why didn´t you just tell us who you are? That you´re Danny Phantom?"


	17. Sam

A/N: Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction ;) Your questions always make me reconsider the ideas that I have for the next chapter(s)... I had a really hard time thinking up a title for this chapter and I finally came up with just 'Sam', because it then bears some relationship with the next chapter.  
No Dark Phantom in this story. Valerie... I'll try to squeeze her in later somewhere too. Maybe.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Sam

"Wha...what? You...you remember?" Danny stuttered.

Tucker´s mouth hung open. He stared at Danny, who took a step back and quickly glanced up and down the hallway, students hurrying past him to their classes as the bell sounded. The hallway was filled with the loud bangs of lockers being slammed shut, students calling out to each other to wait up and a lot of pushing and shoving. In that ruckus, nobody paid them any attention.

Sam nodded. "Just now. During that... kiss. I remember Plasmius taking you," she said, "He... hurt you."

The hallways were emptying now, doors of classrooms closing behind the last one entering. Danny grabbed Sam and Tucker and pushed them into a nearby empty classroom. He carefully closed the door behind them and proceeded to close the blinds on the door's window as well.

"We´ll be late," Tucker squeaked.

"We´ve got detention anyway," Danny shrugged, quickly scanning the classroom for any problems. Tucker realized he always did that.

"_I_ don´t!" he complained.

Danny turned to him. "So, go to the nurse´s office and tell her you´re sick."

"Detention´s good."

Danny turned back to Sam. He seemed to have regained his composure and looked at her intently, as if trying to read her mind.

"What do you remember?" he asked.

Sam sat down on a desk, placing her feet on a chair and stared at the white board on the wall. There were formulas and equations written on it, obviously whoever had taught the last class here had neglected to wipe it clean.

"Everything, I guess. You being zapped by your parent´s portal. You fighting all those ghosts. You... getting hurt all the time." She looked down. "What did Plasmius do to you?"

"You don´t want to know," Danny said bleakly.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Tucker interrupted, "What are you talking about? Who is Plasmius? How can you be Danny Phantom, he's a ghost!"

Danny turned to him, tiredly. "In a nutshell, at the beginning of Freshman year I stepped into my parents ghost portal, it turned on and it... changed me. You were there. I am a half ghost and we've been fighting ghosts together. Vlad Plasmius is... was... Vlad Masters. He was a half ghost too, he's been trying to get me to join him. And six months ago he succeeded."

"Man, that's just... how did you... dude, what about your parents?"

"They don't know."

"They don't know? How can they not know? They're ghost hunters!"

"That's exactly why I couldn't tell them! Although they're gonna find out pretty soon..."

"What?" Sam tore her eyes from the windows and the scenery outside, which she had been staring at, "How?"

Danny sat down on another desk across from her and sighed.

"The DNA test, remember. They sent it off to some lab and I don't know if it's gonna show my ghostly DNA, or what they'd do about it."

Sam shook her head. "Why did you agree to do it then? But I don't think you'll have to worry, they'll accept you. They're not like my parents after all."

"Look, my mom suggested it and I couldn't say no could I? I had to act like it was a very good idea, because it will prove to my dad I am their son and that my mom is not crazy and I'm not some straggler trying to get into their lives. But when they find out what I am while they're not sure of me, who knows how they'll react."

Tucker hadn't really been listening to his friends, lost in thought. Now that he thought about it, there were a lot of similarities between the ghost boy and Danny. In fact, if you ignored the obvious white hair and green eyes, they looked exactly the same. He wondered why nobody ever saw that. And then the name, that really was a dead giveaway.

"Phantom, Fenton. Duh." he muttered to himself and turned his attention back to the couple in front of him.

"So why didn't you tell us?" Sam asked, looking at Danny.

"What?"

She sighed exasperated. "Why so secretive! Why didn't you tell _us_, your best friends. You knew you could trust us!"

"Oh, that."

Tucker felt like he was watching a tennis match, standing between them while they were arguing. Sam looked hurt and Danny shrugged, looking out of the window. Whatever he saw must have been very interesting, because he kept staring at it for a long time, a stony expression on his face. Tucker was about to remind them that it was getting very late when he suddenly looked down at his feet and started talking.

"Every time I tried to tell somebody who I was, they got angry, like I was some sort of crook or villain. I only just managed to get through to you guys I was your friend. I... didn't want to complicate things."

"_Complicate _things... how could they get _more _complicated! How do you think we felt when we found out somebody has been _messing with our heads!_ Start talking Danny, we need to know!"

Danny jumped up, his eyes flashing that familiar green again, a sign he was angry Tucker realized. But Sam was angry too. She had been walking on egg shells around Danny the entire time, unsure of their friendship and her patience was wearing thin. Danny clenched his teeth.

"Look," he said, "I don't know anything about how your memories were wiped. Stop bugging me about it!"

"But you knew why! You knew who was responsible! You should have told us _everything_!"

"Told you what? That the past six months have been hell? That I tried so hard to get back to my family and friends I almost got myself killed? That it hurts, the way you all look at me like I'm some kind of... alien from outer space? I didn't need the extra bonus of being looked at as if I'm a freak!"

Danny was almost shouting now, his voice hoarse.

"Is that what you think we think about you? After all we've been through together?"

Sam could shout too.

Tucker glanced at the clock in the front of the classroom and flinched when he saw they had already missed ten minutes of their class. Then he sighed and sat down on a table as well. He'd better try to divert their attention before they started a shouting match and said things they would regret.

"So... did you find anything in the office?" He asked.

Danny was panting as he was glaring at Sam, who glared right back at him. Upon hearing Tucker's voice he seemed to deflate and he leaned back against the desk he had been sitting on earlier.

"No," he said, "We didn't have time."

"You had time for a make out," Tucker pointed out, grinning.

"Will you cut that out, it was fake alright," Danny said, rubbing his eyes.

Tucker couldn't help but notice Sam flinch at that and he wondered if Danny knew what he was doing to her. "Clueless," he thought to himself and he was sure now that he had thought that about him before. It was like looking at something at the corner of your eyes, knowing something is there, but when you look at it directly it's gone. Sam's anger seemed to have subsided too and she was looking at Danny now with something akin to pity in her eyes.

"You can stop now, you know," She said to Danny.

"Stop what?"

"Stop pretending you´re OK. I know you´re not."

"What would you have me do, break down and cry?"

"It´d be a start."

Danny felt a lump in his throat and he knew that if he didn´t get out of there fast he _would_ break down and cry. He was saved by a blue mist evaporating from his mouth, signifying a nearby ghost. He straightened, looked directly at Tucker and concentrated. Tucker stared at the two white rings that formed around Danny´s waist, one traveling upwards, the other down. The familiar form of the ghost boy appeared, the black jump suit, white gloves, white hair and intense glowing green eyes. But somehow, he wasn´t all that surprised. Somewhere, he had known.

Danny turned to Sam.

"Go to class. I'll be back as soon as I can." he said and took off through the ceiling. Sam shrugged and did as he said, taking Tucker with her.

* * *

They saw him again in the last period and afterwards they went to Mr Lancer for their detention. They didn't speak to each other until the overweight teacher had let them go and they were on their way to Danny's house. 

"Alright," Tucker said to Sam, "So your memory came back because he kissed you? There is no way I'm gonna kiss him to get _my_ memory back!"

Danny laughed at that, feeling happy. His mood had improved considerably after capturing the Box Ghost.

"I don't think it works that way," he said, amused.

Sam shook her head. "It was like the memory was still there, I just couldn't connect to it anymore," she said, stopping in front of Danny's house, "And I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Danny asked.

"For yelling at you."

"Don't be. And I'm sorry too."

"No no, you couldn't help yourself, I should have known better..."

"But I should have told you what was going on and..."

"Will you guys just quit that," Tucker said, "Let's get inside. I think I smell cookies."

They entered the house and Danny grabbed Sam's hand, pulling her into the kitchen, where his mother and Jazz were sitting at the table. Jazz had a huge pile of books in front of her and his mother was holding a mug of coffee while looking at some device which had wires sticking out. Danny recognized it as the Fenton Ghost Finder. His mother was probably thinking it was broke again, since it always pointed at him. Or at least, he hoped that was what she was thinking.

"Mom!" Danny exclaimed as they looked up at him, "Sam remembers!"

Maddie almost dropped her mug and stared at them.

"How did that happen?" she asked.

Danny blushed and started rubbing the back of his neck, while Tucker started laughing.

"They kissed," he grinned and was rewarded with a smack on the head from Sam. "Well, you did!"

Jazz got up, grabbed her books and Danny and pushed him into the living room.

"We'll have to get to the bottom of this," she said and pointed at the couch, "Sit!"

Reluctantly, Danny sat down.

"Why were you kissing her?"

"It wasn't really a kiss. It was a fake out make out! We were snooping in the office, we wanted to see if we could find some old report cards from me and we were caught."

"And so you kissed her?"

Danny's face went even redder. "She started it," he muttered.

Sam stepped in. "We needed to give them an explanation of why we were there. It's not like we haven't done that before."

Tucker was shaking his head. "For a fake kiss it sure looked real though, you were all over her!"

Danny glared at him. "I was not!"

"Were too!"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

"Children," Maddie said, standing in the doorway.

Jazz looked up from the notebook she had been writing in.

"So Sam," she said, "What was it like?" She looked at Sam's red face. "Not the kiss! I mean, how did it come back to you?"

"I...," Sam stopped. She couldn't tell them about the fight with Skulker, with Danny's mother in the room. "I mean, it just happened. It was all there, like it was never gone, like I suddenly could _connect_ to it again."

"Do you remember the day he disappeared?" Maddie asked, "He was with you that day..."

"Yes... no. I mean, yes we were together, but I don't know why he disappeared."

"Alright," Jazz said, "So it's still there. You just needed a strong emotional impulse to get to it again. That means we should all be able to do that somehow..."

"I'm not kissing him," Tucker yelled.

Maddie sighed. "Tucker, that wouldn't work for you!"

"Oh."

They all looked at Danny.

"You... you have to find a way to get to us," Jazz said, "You should know what it is that will make us remember you."

He sat silent for a while, trying to think of something, anything, that could be considered an emotional impulse for Jazz, Tucker or his father.

"I could go fishing with dad at Lake Eerie," he said hesitantly.

Maddie clapped her hands. "Excellent idea!" she said happily, "Do some father-son bonding! He loves that."

Another idea popped up in Danny´s head. He grinned at Tucker.

"I´ll have to think a bit for the others," he said happily. Everything would work out, he could feel it.

Sam nudged Danny. "What? Oh, yeah, lets go up to my room and eh... do some homework," he said.

"Wait," his mother said, "I have more good news!"

She was waiving the letter she was holding and smiled at her son. Danny looked at her, then at the letter and paled, recognizing the logo on it.

"The result of the DNA test came today," she continued, apparently oblivious of her son's discomfort, "It says, ehm, let me see, dear Mrs and Mrs Fenton, in answer to your request, bla bla bla, '...no doubt that samples X1 and X2', that's us, 'have a parental relationship to sample C1, however...' well, you get it. So we've proved it! This will make things so much easier."

Danny, who had been listening with growing dread of what she was going to say, grinned in relief. Obviously they hadn't detected his weirdness. But then his mother continued.

"The only thing that is really strange is that your sample seems to have been contaminated with something and they could not determine what it was. They could still do the test though, but I'm afraid that maybe you were contaminated by something in the lab, so we are going to limit the time you and Jazz can spend there. And I'd like a blood sample, to see if I can find something."

Danny's eyes shot worriedly to Sam and then back to his mother.

"Ehm, later mom, come on, let's go up," he squeaked and practically ran to the stairs.

As he passed Jazz she grabbed his arm, grinning. "Some kiss!" she hissed to him.

Grumbling to himself Danny took his friends up the stairs and into his room. Danny looked at Sam.

"What did you not want to talk about downstairs?" He asked.

Sam flopped on his bed. "I remembered the night Plasmius took you, when you kissed me. There was this other ghost there, a woman with blond hair, very creepy and she... touched me. That´s when I forgot."

Danny frowned. "There was another ghost there, with all the demons, but I don´t recall her doing anything."

"You were on the ground, having something else on your mind."

Tucker cut in. "What do you mean by demons," he asked.

Sam quickly relayed the events of that night to Tucker. Danny walked to the window and peered outside, watching the cars go by. He opened the window and breathed in the cool air, trying to calm himself. He knew he would have to talk about it some time, but he kept postponing it, always finding an excuse. He looked at the wristbands. He had grown dependent on them, as if by hiding the scars, he could hide the rest of him as well.

They had gone quiet behind him and he turned, to see them looking at him questionably. He walked back and sat on the bed, next to Sam.

"There were demons in the park last week," he said, "I had to fight them twice. They are very hard to defeat, the first time my mom actually helped me. The second time there were only four. I can handle four."

Sam gasped. "You _mom_ helped you? Does she..."

Danny shook his head.

"We sat down and talked for a bit afterwards. She didn´t try to shoot me, which was nice for a change."

Sam watched him. He was working up courage to do something, so she sat very still, hoping Tucker would keep his mouth shut too. Finally he started tugging at his wristbands and took them off. She tried not to stare at the ugly scars.

"Vlad used those demons to train me. I don´t know where he got them from. But now they are showing up here and that worries me."

He was telling her something else, she could feel it.

"How... how did he train you?" she asked and grabbed his hand. He stiffened but didn´t pull back.

"He made me fight them, destroy them. I had no choice. They would tear me apart. They did, on occasion."

Sam held her breath. He was telling them a little bit of what he had gone through. Which he had been refusing to do to anyone for the past two weeks. She squeezed his hand.

"He wanted me to be his pawn, his perfect son. To ´rule the world together´. Pretty funny when you think of it."

"Hilarious," Sam said.

She was afraid to ask the next question, but Tucker wasn't.

"How did you get away," he asked.

Danny started to sweat and scratched his wrists, not looking them in the eyes.

"Those wristbands were tuned in to my ectoplasmic signature. I had to change it and even then it was... painful."

"You can´t change your ectoplasmic signature," Sam exclaimed.

"Yes you can. It changes you though. You´re not the same afterwards."

She felt a cold feeling of dread come over her. She knew exactly what he meant by 'not the same'.

"I think I managed to change back. Mostly. It took a while though. That´s why I ran away from that foster home back in Madison. I couldn´t risk hurting any more people."


	18. Tucker

A/N: I'm not really happy with this chapter, it jumps around and it just doesn't 'flow'. Still, some parts aren't too bad. Next chapter will be better, I promise...

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Tucker

Tucker sat at his computer very late that Monday night, idly clicking through techno news groups, not really reading anything. His room was dark, his curtains were drawn and his face was lit only by his computer screen, making him look almost pale. He sighed and leaned backwards in his swivel chair, letting his left arm dangling beside him while his right hand was resting on his keyboard. Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom. And he knew. Or he was supposed to know. Danny and Sam had told him how it had happened, how Danny had stepped into his parents portal and had been electrocuted, infused with a huge amount of ectoplasm when it accidentally turned on.

And then they had hunted ghosts, the three of them, capturing them in what they called the 'Fenton Thermos'. They had told him the stories and he had smiled at them, because some were pretty funny like the one about the purple back gorilla. They had also mentioned something about an 'evil future self' but Danny hadn't wanted to expand on that. Instead, he had formed three glowing green ecto balls and had started juggling with them, throwing them high up and catching them with amazing skill, showing off a little.

Sam had frowned a that and had whispered to Danny to stop doing that, what if his parents walked in. Danny had just smiled that cocky smile of his and had shrugged, but he had stopped anyway. Instead, he had started telling Tucker about the amazing things he could do, fly, go invisible, walk through things, shooting ecto rays. And again Sam had looked at him strangely, worriedly even, as if something was wrong.

Something was wrong with Danny, Tucker thought as he read through the specifications of the newest PDA. Danny had become very closemouthed all of a sudden when Tucker had started to ask questions about Danny's 'changing back'. He had said not to worry about it, he was fine, had no problems so stop asking questions. And he had placed the wristbands back on his wrists, as if closing the subject. But Tucker trusted Sam and Sam didn't trust Danny.

They had dinner at the Fentons and Danny's dad had been thrilled with the idea of going fishing with his son, to do some 'Father Son Bonding'. Danny had smiled wistfully at that and had looked sad for a moment. In general, the mood had been happy and optimistic and Danny had cracked jokes about the food not eating them back, making Tucker suspiciously eying his meat.

Tucker sighed, looked at his alarm clock and seeing that it was already past midnight, decided to call it a day. He put his glasses next to his computer, turned off the screen, closed his eyes and dreamed of flying cars.

* * *

The next morning he met Sam and Danny at their lockers, which were next to each other. Since Danny no longer had to hide his identity from them, he simply phased his hand trough the door and retrieved his books that way, smirking at Tucker. Sam looked worriedly up and down the hallway and gave him a puzzled look. There was something going on, Tucker thought, but he couldn't think of what it could be. 

At lunch, Sam wanted to discuss the ectoplasmic signature change again but Danny waved it away, saying he had in under control and changed the subject. Tucker seriously doubted that, with the worried looks that Sam was giving Danny. She had been comparing present Danny to past Danny to Tucker during study hall earlier. He was way to aggressive, she had said and he was never that much of a show off with is powers. And he used to be _nice_.

"Come on Tuck," Danny said while examining the food at his plate, trying to figure out which was which, "Come on a ghost patrol with us, just like old times. Maybe you'll remember then."

Sam looked up from her salad. "That's your plan? Take Tucker on a ghost patrol so he'll remember?"

"Sure, why not. Be my sidekick again. Carry the thermos and all," he smirked.

Sam slammed her fork on her tray, picked it up and stomped out of the cafeteria, stared after by not only Danny and Tucker but everybody else there too. Tucker was to busy being angry at Danny to notice the brief flash of pain on his face. It was gone in an instant and he got up as well, threw his uneaten lunch in the trash and walked after her, saying "I'll talk to her."

He must have succeeded to placate her because that evening the three of them met at the park, Danny as Phantom and Sam and Tucker both carrying thermoses and ecto blasters Danny had 'borrowed' from the weapons vault at his house. He also handed them the tiny ear plugs he called 'Fenton Phones' and set off to find ghosts.

It didn't take him long.

Tucker and Sam walked together in silence for a while, leaving the park and going in the direction of the school, which was where they'd seen Danny go. The street lights were already on and it was starting to get very dark outside, so Tucker was glad they had left the park. He wondered what he was supposed to do when they found a ghost. As far as he could remember, the only way to deal with ghosts was to run away. And now they were purposely looking for one.

Tucker's ear phone crackled and he jumped when Danny suddenly shouted "Tucker, Sam, where are you, I need a thermos."

"He's in trouble," Sam cried and she ran towards the school, where she'd seen him last.

Tucker followed her with some difficulty, silently cursing his backpack that contained his life support; his PDA, his laptop computer and his cell phone. He couldn't imagine having done this before, this was just way too much exercise. He'd need a double portion of meat to make up for this.

He rounded the corner and bumped right into Sam, who had stopped dead in her tracks.

"Wha.. what?" he gasped, picking himself up from the ground and quickly checking if all his equipment in his backpack was OK.

Danny was just floating there with his arms folded, intangible, an annoyed look on his face, while a burly blue ghost threw boxes at him shouting something like 'burying him under his boxes of doom'. The boxes went right through Danny and Tucker saw that they came from a stack of boxes with waste paper standing next to the dumpster. Sheets of paper were flying around as the boxes crashed against the wall behind Danny.

Sam sighed, pointed her thermos at the Box Ghost and sucked him in while he complained about being sucked into the cylindrical shaped thermos. Danny put himself to the ground and had just started to walk towards them, grinning, when the door behind Tucker opened and an overweight, balding teacher cried out.

"Uh oh," Danny said and disappeared from sight.

"Catch 22! Miss Manson, Mr Foley! What are you two doing!" Mr Lancer exclaimed.

He proceeded to lecture them about the mess they had made and tasked them to clean it up. When he had disappeared inside again, Danny came back into view, cringing slightly under Sam's burning look.

"Um, I guess I'll finish my rounds alone then," he said and took off before one of them could say anything. Tucker wished he could disappear like that.

* * *

The rest of the week, Danny was being very annoying to Tucker. He was constantly using his powers, going invisible when Dash neared, phasing his hand into the soda machine to get one until Sam smacked him for it and teasing Tucker by turning his meat invisible at lunch. He did, however, apologize for leaving them to clean up the mess the Box Ghost had made and after they had made him grovel for a while they graciously let him back at their lunch table. 

"So, did you get another look at those report cards?" Tucker asked, referring to Danny's plan to go into the office again, invisible this time.

Danny's face, which until then had a happy expression on it because they had forgiven him, fell.

"I found only Jazz'," he said curtly and changed the subject.

It must be so cool, having ghost powers, Tucker thought when he was sitting in his Math class on Friday, trying to pay attention to the teacher. Danny had hinted of what he could do with the invisibility thing and it had involved locker rooms and girls.

The night before they had been playing 'Doomed' at his house without Sam and at first it had been fun, because he didn't get his but kicked as usual. Danny was obviously out of practice and Tucker had blasted him out of the game three times before you could say 'laptop computer'. But then Danny had taken matters into is own hand and had cheated outrageously by simply transforming into his ghost self and going into the game. He was indestructible that way and used his powers to blast everybody out of the game, smirking. Tucker started to wonder why he ever hung out with him.

Danny burst into the room and halted at the door. Mr Falluca looked at him angrily.

"Do you have an explanation Mr Fenton," he said.

"Eh... bathroom?" Danny said sheepishly and he pulled out his best puppy dog look.

Mr Falluca didn't fall for it. "Because you're new, I'll let it go this time. Try to be in time next time. Please sit."

Danny sat down next to Tucker and grinned at him, pointing at the thermos that stuck out of his back pack.

"Couple of demons," he whispered to Tucker, "Piece of cake!"

There it was again, that feeling of inferiority. Tucker sunk a little deeper into his chair and glanced at Danny again.

"Man," he thought, "I wish I had ghost powers."

_He was sitting in the movie theater, by himself, watching the latest 'Dead Teacher' movie. It wasn't so much fun watching it alone. In fact, the movie sucked big time if you couldn't laugh about it with your friends and throw popcorn at unsuspecting people sitting three rows in front of you. Danny had just left to fight a ghost, simply going invisible and intangible. Sam was at home, sick. _

_He was envious of Danny and his ghost powers. There were just no drawbacks, Danny could pretty much do as he pleased and the girls loved his ghost form. Tucker didn't understand why Danny didn't use it more to get Paulina._

"_I wish I had ghost powers," he said out loud. _

_At that moment, he seemed to hear a voice, saying "And as you have wished it, so it shall be!," but he couldn't see anyone. He didn't think anything of it until he sank through his seat._

Everyone was staring at him. He noticed he was standing up, staring at Danny, feeling weak in the knees.

"Something wrong Mr Foley," Mr Falluca asked him.

"N-no..no, may I be excused?"

He practically ran from the classroom before Mr Falluca could answer, dashed into the boys restroom and threw up in the toilet. He felt dizzy and sick, so he let himself sink to the floor and sat next to the toilet, with his back against the cold, tiled wall. The memories hit him like a shock wave, one overflowing the other, sending his head spinning. Was this what it was like for Sam? He smiled a little and held on to the thought that Sam's head was probably spinning for another reason at the time.

Slowly he dragged himself to his feet, flushed the toilet and stumbled to the sink to throw some water into his face. He was staring at himself in the mirror when he heard someone enter the restroom.

"You OK Tuck?" Danny asked hesitantly.

Tucker turned. Danny was rubbing the back of his neck and looking at the floor.

"You...," Tucker said, taking a step forward and pointing his finger at him, "You did that on purpose, didn't you! Showing off your ghost powers! Making me... jealous! Gah! I could kill you!"

Danny grinned. "I take it it worked?" he asked and added an "Ouch!" when Tucker grabbed him.

He quickly let go. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Danny shrugged. "It wasn't really a piece of cake," he said lightly, "Come on, lets get back to class. And Tucker, I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I didn't _like_ doing that to you, you know..."

They sat out the remainder of their classes and met up with Sam after school, feeling as if they were let out of prison. Tucker had been lost in memory during the rest of his classes and had barely avoided detention a number of times. He couldn't believe he forgot about Danny, his best friend for, like, forever. Since kindergarten they had shared everything, except for the ghost powers of course. Tucker remembered all too well now the incident that gave him ghost powers and knew it was a good thing he didn't have them. Which made him sort of admire his friend, who didn't (well, mostly didn't) abuse his powers, but used them only to protect people.

"So that's what you were doing," Sam said to Danny as they were walking away from the school.

Most of the other kids had left in their cars, were picked up by their parents or rode the bus, but they needed to talk and walking gave them some privacy.

"Yeah," Danny said, "I'm sorry. I was being a total jerk, I know. But if you guys knew about it, it wouldn't have worked."

Tucker looked at Sam and then at Danny.

"We thought...you had changed" he said, "We were worried you would never be the same again."

Danny stopped in his tracks. "I'm always me! I'm _trying_ OK!"

He seemed upset for some reason and Tucker thought he knew what it was. Danny had to do something to himself to be able to escape from Vlad and had had trouble changing back. A lot of trouble, because he wouldn't talk about it.

"Now we need to get to Jazz and your dad!" Tucker said in an attempt to change the subject.

They were silent for a while, each of them pondering the possibilities. They passed the park, which was mostly deserted as a cold wind made being out in the open very uncomfortable. Most people were just hurrying along, trying to get inside again as fast as they could. The three friends walked slowly, ignoring the weather conditions, lost in thought.

"Maybe we need to tell Jazz about you," Sam said pensively as she kicked a stone. It bounced on the sidewalk and tumbled into the grass.

"What? Why?" Danny said, "She worries enough as it is and...oh."

Jazz was always worrying about her brother. What if they managed to get her to worry about him again, now a complete stranger? Although she seemed to accept him more and more the last week, she still didn't remember him and Danny sometimes caught her staring at him intently, as if she was trying to will herself to remember.

"That might work for your dad too," Tucker grinned, "His obsession is ghosts after all."

Danny looked at him, horrified. "Yeah right like I'm gonna let myself be dissected by him so he'll remember? No way!"

"Well that or turn into a giant cookie.."


	19. Revelations

A/N: Wow I'm being productive today... Anyway, I seem to be getting somewhere with this story, I estimate the number of chapters will be about 25 or 26 (I have them sort of typed out). And no more Valerie in this story, sorry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Revelations

Maddie sat at the desk in the lab, looking idly at the mess on it. She had started to clean it up earlier, but then she had come across Ghost Gabber and she had just stood there, staring at it. It had been one of the first of their inventions that malfunctioned around Danny, together with the Ghost Finder. Behind her Jack was happily humming to himself as he was putting together an improved version of the Fenton Bazooka. It now had a warning light that the thing needed to be recharged.

She glanced around the basement, it's steel paneled walls, the shelves with books, the closet with abandoned inventions, thrown in haphazardly so that opening the door would probably cause a small avalanche. Boxes with old toasters, radio's, mixers and other junk they used to create something new. Two old vacuum cleaners stood in one corner, partially dismantled because Jack had needed something off it. But nothing really dangerous. Except for the portal of course, but that was tightly shut.

It hadn't always been shut, but once they had discovered ghosts could come through they had installed those tight fitting doors, with a genetic lock on it so only a Fenton could open it. She smiled when she thought of her son's clever use of that lock to prove who he was. Jack might be dense and stubborn at times, but above all he was a scientist and he had accepted the proof of Danny's DNA without further question.

But Maddie needed more than that, she needed to prove to the authorities that Danny was their son, that there had been a huge cover up going on and that he needed to be reinstated. Two stacks of letters were on the desk, letters she had received in reply to letters she had sent. The bureaucracy was slow, but at least it was moving. On top was a copy of the letter she had received from the lab they did the DNA test with and she reached out to grab it and look at it again.

There had been something off with Danny's sample. It hadn't prevented them from doing the test, but they had added an extensive commentary, detailing what they had found, even though they didn't know what it was. She looked at the data again. The lab couldn't know what it was, but she knew it all to well. It was ectoplasm. Her son was contaminated with ectoplasm. It could of course come from living in this house, so close to the portal. But she was way more in the basement than he was, so if that was the case then she should be contaminated too, they all should be contaminated.

The questions were tumbling over each other in her head and she felt a slight headache coming up. From Danny's reaction from her suggestion they do a DNA test she gathered he knew something was up with him, his enthusiasm had been forced and there had been a slight flash of panic in his eyes. Later, when she had shown him the letter from the lab his face had been so pale she had thought he was going to faint. And now every time she asked for that blood sample he practically ran away. She had stopped asking after two days, afraid he would take off permanently.

She knew he thought she hadn't noticed all of this and in fact six months ago he would have been right. She guiltily remembered how she had always been working, distracted by her inventions and ideas, oblivious of what was going on with her children. But ever since she found him again after he had been gone for so long she had been watching him closely, looking for clues of what happened to him and how to help him. She would not make that mistake again.

Then, unbidden, came back that thought she had the night she had watched Phantom fight. But that was impossible.

She heard a noise on top of the stairs and looked at the clock on the wall. It must be Jazz coming home from school. Moments later her daughter walked in, still carrying her bag and tilting over a bit from the weight of it.

"Hi mom, hi dad," she said.

Maddie was just about to answer her when the phone rang.

* * *

They were heading towards the Nasty Burger when Danny's ghost sense went off. He looked around, but there were just too many people there and there was no convenient alley nearby. "Cover me," he said and just like they used to they stood in front of him while he transformed into his alter ego and if anyone had looked at the two teenagers standing on the sidewalk, whistling, they would only have seen a strange bright flash behind them. He flew away, invisible so he wouldn't betray his position. 

Sam and Tucker started walking slowly to the Nasty Burger again, waiting for the sounds of battle so they could rush to his assistance and they didn't have to wait long. Screams were coming from around the corner and when they rounded it they saw people running out of the Nasty Burger, several of them wounded with cuts and bruises, staggering on the sidewalk and onto the street, causing cars to honk and swerve to avoid collisions. Sam and Tucker quickly ran up there, swerving between the running men, women and children and started looking for Danny, but he appeared to be already inside. Sam took out the thermos from her backpack and looked at Tucker.

"Ready?," she said. Tucker nodded. As the last of the customers fled the building they went inside.

The place was filled with the demon like ghosts and Danny was having a hard time in the confined space of the restaurant. Sam and Tucker quickly dove behind an overturned table and peeked around it to see what was happening. Danny spotted them instantly.

"Thermos," he yelled at Sam as one of them tried to slice his head of.

He narrowly escaped, flipping backwards while the demon's claws passed his neck by only an inch. Sam pointed the thermos at the demon that was furthest away from Danny and sucked him in. There were at least ten more. Danny started blasting them away from him, but although they were thrown backwards by his ecto beams, it didn't really do much damage to them.

Tucker could do nothing but stare as Danny jumped and kicked and actually formed a sizzling green sword like beam and started hacking them, severing limbs and heads. Tucker didn't have any weapons on him and he couldn't believe that only a few hours ago he had been _jealous_ of Danny.

"Call his parents" Sam hissed to him as she was crouching beside him, firmly holding the thermos, waiting for one of the demons to get away from Danny far enough so she could suck him in without sucking in Danny as well.

"What!" Tucker yelled back, thinking he hadn't heard her right.

"Call his parents! He's in over his head!"

Seeing as he couldn't do anything in here Tucker bolted out the door, fumbling with his cell phone. He had Fenton Works on speed dial and he pressed the button, while looking back worriedly through the large windows of the restaurant. Maddie answered the phone.

"Mrs Fenton!" he yelled, "Ghost attack at the Nasty Burger! We need your help!"

Maddie remained calm. "What kind of ghost?"

"Those demons! Lots of them!"

Tucker ducked as one of the demons came thrashing through the window, causing the glass to rain on Tucker and he hissed in pain when one of the shards cut his hand. He started cursing as he scurried away from the building, trying to find a safer place to stand and watch the fight.

"Tucker! Tucker are you alright? We'll be there in a couple of minutes!" Maddie said, from the sound of it already on the move, shouting at Jack and Jazz to hurry up and get their gear.

"Tucker! Are you still there?" she yelled and Tucker heard a thud in the background, as if closing a car door, "Is... is Phantom there?"

Tucker was surprised at the question. "Yes, but he is losing, there are way too many of them! Please hurry!"

As he hung up, Tucker noticed that Danny had managed to take the fight outside where he had more room. Sam came bursting out the door, looking flustered.

"I got three!" she yelled at Tucker, shaking the thermos.

She looked up, where Danny was desperately trying to avoid the remaining demons. The Nasty Burger was thoroughly thrashed, glass from the windows crackling under their feet, splintered tables and chairs everywhere. Sam wondered briefly if they had insurance and if so, if it covered being thrashed by ghosts twice a month.

"Did you call?"

Tucker nodded, edging away from the building while looking up into the sky. A small crowd had formed a little bit away from them, cheering whenever Danny hit one of the demons and going 'Aaah' when he was hit himself.

"They'll be here any minute," he said and he winced when he saw Danny take a blow on his head as one of the demons simply crashed in on him.

Danny blasted it with a bright green ecto beam and it was driven back somewhat. Sam had been waiting for that and quickly pointed the thermos and sucked it inside.

"Four," she muttered, looking up worriedly.

Danny was tiring quickly from the high speed he had to keep up to avoid the claws. She could see he hadn't been successful in a number of occasions and she hoped they wouldn't get too far away from them, because then they'd be out of range for the thermos and she would be unable to help him. She wished she had an ecto gun, but Danny always returned them to the weapons vault after a patrol, saying he didn't want his parents to find out he was borrowing them.

Tucker turned when he heard a vehicle come to a screeching stop behind him and was relieved to see it was the GAV. He never thought he would be glad to see Danny's parents in a ghost fight, but right now Danny needed all the help he could get.

Maddie jumped from the vehicle first and ran over to Tucker and Sam.

"Take cover," she yelled at them as she aimed the Fenton Bazooka at the demons.

"Don't hit Phantom," Sam yelled at her.

"Don't worry, I won't"

Maddie took careful aim and placed her shot right next to the demon that was farthest away from Danny. A swirling green vortex appeared next to it and it was sucked right in, together with another one Danny managed to throw at the temporary hole to the ghost zone.

Jack came up next to her, holding an ecto blaster. He had, however, clearly been instructed not to use it, because he didn't try to fire it. Tucker and Sam ran to the GAV, just as Jazz came out, holding two more ecto blasters. Without a word Sam and Tucker grabbed them from her hands, ignoring her "hey!" and they ran back to the fight.

Maddie had managed to remove another demon from the fight, but she couldn't use the bazooka now, because the demons were too close to Danny. He was kicking and blasting them when they got too close but he couldn't keep them off for much longer. His movements became slower, less accurate and he could no longer control the ecto sword he used before. It dissipated and he gave out a strangled cry of frustration.

Tucker and Sam took aim and each blasted a demon from behind. That gave Danny some space and he kicked them away from him so that they could be blown into the ghost zone by Maddie. He turned and used the same trick on them he had used before, grabbing one demon by it's head and simultaneously kicking the other two away from him. As he twisted the head of the demon, breaking it's neck, he heard the booming sound of the bazooka. When he turned, the last of the demons were gone.

For a moment he hung there, suspended in the air, looking totally wiped out. Then he slowly drifted to the ground and Tucker and Sam rushed up to him. When he touched the ground he immediately went down on his hands and knees.

"I hope he doesn't pass out here," Sam muttered to Tucker.

Just when they reached him, two white rings appeared around his waist. Danny let out a scream and balled his fists, willing the rings to go away. His parents were here, half the town was looking. He was not going to pass out. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's get you out of here," Sam said to him.

He could only nod mutely and Sam helped him up, draping his arm over her shoulder and motioning Tucker to do the same. They were about to move when they saw Maddie standing in front of them, holding the Fenton Bazooka. But she wasn't pointing it at him, she just looked.

"Hey, it's the ghost boy," Jack yelled, but as he took aim with his ecto blaster Maddie took it away from him.

"Hey!" Jack yelled indignantly.

Maddie walked up closer to Danny and studied his face, looking worried and apprehensive. Then she narrowed her eyes and she seemed to reach some kind of conclusion, because she nodded once.

"Come with us for now," she said, "I promise we won't hurt you."

Danny gulped, but he was in no condition to make a run for it at that point, hanging between Tucker and Sam. He felt them shiver from the coldness he was radiating, but he could do nothing about that.

"You're not going to tear me apart molecule by molecule?"

Maddie smiled a little and shook her head. "Not today. Jack? You heard me?"

The big man sulked, but agreed and they carried the injured ghost to the GAV. The small crowd that had gathered moved aside when they approached them and let them through, much to their relief. Sam scanned the area for Valerie but it seemed they were lucky.

Danny sat down heavily in the back of the GAV, using all his remaining power and concentration to keep him in ghost form. Sam and Tucker sat beside him, holding him steady, not unlike they had done a few weeks earlier when they had found him. His father climbed behind the wheel and started up, just Maddie and Jazz entered, closing the doors behind them. Jack drove away, surprisingly gently so the ghost in the back wouldn't be jerked around too much.

They drove for a few minutes in silence, Jazz ogling the ghost in the back of the GAV nervously, obviously not knowing what to think of him. Danny averted his eyes, trying to look anywhere but at his family, feeling extremely agitated for them being so close to him. He could see them shiver every now and then and he knew he caused a temperature drop inside the GAV.

Jazz seemed to compose herself and started rummaging through the various cabinets in the vehicle, taking out a first aid kit. She took out some bandages and started wrapping it around his arm one of the demons had ripped open when he had been too slow to move away.

"Cut it out, Jazz," he muttered, pushing her away, "You'll make a mummy out of me. I'll fix this later."

She frowned at his use of her name, but backed off. She contented herself with just staring at him instead and he started to feel very uncomfortable. He took a deep breath.

"Could you eh, drop me off here somewhere. I'm alright now," he asked his mother.

She turned to look at him. "No Danny," she said, "You're coming with us. I think maybe you have something to tell us."

She wasn't looking at him, more like looking past him. He blinked at her. She bore that same look on her face as when she had seen he had gotten his ear pierced that day with Sam in the mall, in fact... he could kick himself. She was looking at his left ear and he brought his hand up to feel the silver stud there, the one thing that remained the same in both his forms. He should never have allowed her to come so close to him.

Suddenly it all seemed pointless. He was too tired, too much in pain to care anymore so he leaned back, closed his eyes and let go of his ghost form. Two white rings appeared around his waist, one traveling up, the other down, revealing a battered teenager with some nasty cuts on his arms and a quickly spreading dark stain on his shirt. Not nearly as bad as the cuts on his ghost form though.

His father hit the brakes and turned to look at him, his mouth wide open.

"Wa..wa..what?" He stuttered.

Jazz let out a sharp cry, covering her mouth with her hand and staring at him wide eyed. Sam and Tucker just looked at each other.

"So that's how you do it," his mother said, not looking surprised at all. "No wonder we could never find you. You were right under our noses."

* * *

High above the GAV a vampire like ghost was floating, keeping his distance. He shook his head. 

"You're losing your touch, Daniel," he whispered to himself as he saw the GAV come to a sudden halt. "High time to teach you a lesson I think."

With that, he vanished into thin air.


	20. Talk

A/N: YES! I reached 100 reviews yesterday :) Thank you thank you thank you, I love you all!

Well, the title says it all... no action in this chapter. I debated myself if I should combine this chapter with the next one, because it isn't very long and not much is happening, but I decided not to. It would get too long then, and have too many jumps in it. So you can see this as a filler before things start happening again in the next chapter :)  
Christine: I couldn't answer your review, your email address was wrong... but thanks for the review anyway!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Talk

Danny sat on a table in the middle of his parent's lab, his feet dangling and his hands clutching the edge of the cold metal tabletop. His mother had ordered him to take off his shirt so she could wrap bandages around his chest and arms and he winced every now and then when she pulled them tightly. She hadn't said a word since they had gotten home and had ushered everybody out of the lab, including Jack, who kept bombarding Danny with questions after he had recovered from the initial shock.

When she was finished, she took a chair and sat down on it backwards, facing him, a stern expression on her face. He looked back at her nervously, but managed to refrain from rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm so mad at you," she said finally, her anger at him winning for the moment.

Danny looked at the ground. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

He seemed to shrink somewhat, his shoulders shagging. But she was too angry now to feel sorry for him.

"You're sorry. _I'm_ sorry. I _hunted_ you! I shot at my _own son_! What if we had killed you! How do you think that would have made us feel! You should have told us!"

"I didn't dare, alright! You were always talking about dissecting ghosts, taking them apart molecule by molecule! I was scared!" 

He had a pained expression on his face. She sighed exasperated, wondering where he got the idea that they would do that to him, their own son. Then she suddenly felt guilty. He hadn't trusted them enough to come to them with this, he had had to bear this burden all by himself. She had failed him, deserted him. No wonder he looked so old.

"Danny you are our _son_," she said, a little gentler, "We would never do that to you. We love you. What you're doing is so dangerous. I'm afraid to lose you."

He straightened a little and looked up at her for the first time, his expression unreadable, but his eyes suddenly suspiciously moist and he rubbed them quickly. She wondered if that was what he had wanted to hear all that time, that they accepted him the way he was, that they loved him. But she had thought he knew that all along, she had thought that they didn't have to tell him that explicitly. He glanced around the lab, at the mess they had left it in earlier, the clutter on the desk, his eyes finally resting on the closed doors of the ghost portal.

"Yes, well that's another reason I didn't want to tell you," he said, "You would have wanted me to stop hunting ghosts and I can't do that. The town was run over when I wasn't here. I need to protect you guys."

"So you play the hero." Maddie got angry again and she tried to suppress it.

"_Somebody _has to!"

He almost yelled and his eyes turned green for a moment. She almost backed away from him and he must have seen her flinch, because he quickly closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. She realized his powers showed even when he wasn't a ghost and wondered how much control he had. Several dials on the ghost equipment in the lab had spiked when his eyes turned green and she had felt the chill coming from him.

She remembered that had seen his eyes turn green before, but she had always dismissed that as a trick of the light. Now that she looked at him she didn't understand how she could have missed the aura of power that seemed to be emanating from him, in fact, how had anyone missed it, kids at school, the teachers... they must all really not be paying attention to him at all. And he was bullied all the time, how did he stand it? How did he not retaliate, how did he let his tormentors just push him around?

She decided to try something else as the conversation was leading nowhere.

"It was the accident with the portal, wasn't it, back when you started high school," she said to him, "That's when you started acting strange... I thought it was just you going through a phase... I feel like such a idiot, not noticing something was wrong with my own son."

She was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry Danny. I didn't mean to yell at you. Is... is this why Vlad kidnapped you? You said something about him wanting you as his son... How did he know?"

Danny got up and started pacing the lab, avoiding her eyes. He looked like a caged animal, she thought. He was mumbling to himself, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Danny," she said, but she got no response.

She grabbed his arm and he stopped, quickly closing his eyes. For a moment she thought she saw them glowing red and she wondered what that could mean.

"Mom," he said tensely, "I really need to walk."

Ice cold fear rose up in her and she let go of him. He started moving again, carefully measuring his steps, walking to the far end and back again and she watched him. She caught some movement at the bottom of the stairs and noticed that the others were silently standing there, huddling together. Sam's eyes were wide with worry as she watched Danny move and Maddie felt a pang of jealousy as she realized Sam knew more about her son than she did. Jazz still looked bewildered at her brother's transformation and was biting her lip. Tucker was taking comfort by fumbling with his PDA, which he had in quiet mode for a change. Even Jack managed to keep quiet.

Finally Danny stopped pacing and sat down on the table again.

"Vlad is a half ghost too," he said, "remember back in college when you built the proto portal and he got the ecto acne? That's when he got his ghost powers. Vlad is the Wisconsin ghost."

Maddie slowly got up, trying to process the information she just heard. Behind her Jack let out a small cry which ended in an 'Hrmpf' as someone - probably Jazz - elbowed him. She felt a rage build inside of her, a cold fury that required immediate action and she looked around the lab. She stepped to the desk, picked up a random piece of equipment and threw it against the wall, screaming. They all looked at her in shock. She felt a little better though and she walked to the wall to see what it was she had destroyed. It was the Ghost Gabber. She started to laugh.

"No wonder all our equipment went off around you, hahaha, everything pointed at you being a ghost, hahaha, I can't believe we just ignored that, because you _couldn't_ be a ghost."

She stopped laughing and turned to him, suddenly worried.

"You are still alive aren't you?"

Danny blinked at her. "Eh, I guess so. I have a heart beat, I'm breathing and I bleed when I get cut so..." He looked at the floor again. It seemed to be his favorite place to look at. "I'm not sure I'm entirely human though."

Maddie sighed and glanced at the others again, who were peering around the corner. Danny didn't seem to notice it, he had his back to them.

"Is that what you call yourself? A half ghost?" she asked him. Danny nodded. "Can you ... tell me about it?"

He shook his head, but then nodded again.

"We wanted to check out the portal. I thought it'd be cool to look inside of it and I put on one of those hazemat suits for protection, you know, the white one with the black gloves. When I walked in there I accidentally pushed a button and the thing came to life with me in it. I thought I was going to die, it hurt so bad. But I didn't, I just passed out and when I woke up I was like this."

The two rings appeared around his waist, one traveling upward, the other down, changing him into his alter ego. Immediately she felt the temperature of the lab drop a few degrees.

"You see, the colors of the hazemat suit were inverted, my hair turned white and my eyes green. But other than that I'm the same."

His voice sounded hollow, now, having a distinct echo to it. He grinned.

"Of course, all sorts of weird powers came with it. I had the hardest time controlling them in the beginning."

Maddie examined him, still not quite used to the fact that she was looking at her own son. His suit had been torn and ripped an hour earlier, but now it was perfect again, fitting him tightly. He held up his hand and a small green ectoball formed, floating just above it. He formed another and another and started juggling them. She cleared her throat and Danny let the balls disappear and looked at her expectantly and a bit nervous.

"What.. what else can you do," she asked, still mortified by the fact that her son was now a ghost, but also curious.

He grinned. "Oh, you know, the basics, fly, go invisible, pass through things and.. um.. well, other stuff."

"Like shooting ecto rays?"

He pointed his index finger at the Ghost Gabber that was still laying on the floor and let out a small, green beam. It hit the device in the middle and it burst into flames.

"I've wanted to do that for ages," he muttered and she smiled involuntarily.

"So that's how you fired that empty ecto gun at that ghost that came through the portal?"

He looked at her in alarm.

"It was empty? I didn't know that...," his voice trailed away and his eyes glazed over as he seemed lost in some memory.

"So, that's it?" she asked him, trying to get his attention back again.

"N-no, I can make a shield and...I can make a shield," he ended lamely.

There was something he wasn't telling her and now she was determined to find out what it was. It must be a habit, she thought, trying to keep everything to himself, because he thought she couldn't handle it. She wished he would stop doing that, taking on the world on his shoulders.

"What about Vlad? Can he do the same things as you? Does he have all your powers?"

"No, I have...Yes," he said bitterly, "Only he has twenty years of experience on me. And he can multiply himself. He can beat me anytime."

He definitely had some power Vlad didn't have. She glanced at Sam, who was still standing there and had a frown on her face and Tucker, who was now looking uncomfortable. They knew what it was and it must be pretty bad too. Something...destructive.

"You still seem different when you are like this," she said, changing the subject.

He shrugged and relaxed somewhat, having left the dangerous grounds they were walking on.

"Comes with the job. Like I said, I'm not two different people." The two rings appeared again and he changed back. "See. Still the same."

He was still the same, she saw that now. Phantom's confidence was Danny's confidence, their playfulness was the same, Phantom's cocky smile changed into a smirk on Danny's face. It was just a matter of appearance.

"You told me Vlad controlled you with some wrist bands..."

Danny started shaking his head and gripped the edge of the table tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"I don't wanna talk about that."

"You're going to have to some day."

He was silent, not looking at her. She remembered how he had taken off when they were talking about the wristbands in the park, when he was Phantom. Just when she thought he wasn't going to say anything anymore he spoke.

"They were tuned in to my ectoplasmic signature. I could only go ghost when he allowed it, among other things."

Maddie didn't want to know what the other things were, but she asked anyway.

"What other things," she whispered.

"Vlad shocked him," came Sam's voice from the stairs.

Danny glared at her. She came into the lab, followed by the others, walked to the table Danny was sitting on and sat down beside him. He clearly didn't want her talking about it, but he didn't try to stop her either.

Maddie turned to Sam. "You knew about this, didn't you, you and Tucker."

Sam nodded. "Tucker remembered today, Danny got through to him. And Jazz, she knew too. We helped him. In fact, I was there when Vlad captured Danny."

She looked nervously at Danny, whose face was now totally blank and quickly told the events from that night, six months ago.

"Wait a minute," Maddie said, "Vlad owned those demons? What are they doing in Amity Park now? Are they after you again?"

Danny shrugged and winced at the movement.

"I don't know," he said tiredly, "I don't know where Vlad got them from, I never dared to ask."

"What happened to Vlad? How did you get away?," Maddie asked.

"I collapsed his house on him. He's dead."

"You can knock down a house that size?" Jack got excited, "That's awesome!"

Maddie shook her head. "They didn't find him in the debris. You said he's a half ghost too, he must have escaped."

Again, a silence fell over the lab. Nobody seemed to know what to say. Danny was leaning against Sam, studying the floor again, Tucker was staring at one of the computers in the lab that was still on, the colorful lines of the screen saver swirling. Jack was fidgeting, obviously full of questions, but not knowing where to start and Jazz was just standing there. Danny looked up.

"Pizza boy is here," and as he said that, the doorbell rang.

"That's freaky," Tucker muttered, "But handy."


	21. Reality

A/N: This chapter is short, but I just couldn't resist breaking off here...

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Reality

Danny sat on the floor of the living room, cross legged, chewing on a slice of pepperoni pizza. The TV was on, showing some animal wildlife program Sam had probably chosen, but nobody was watching it. The normalcy of the scene, them sitting together in the living room, eating pizza with the TV on gave him a feeling that could only be described as happiness. He wasn't just Danny Phantom, ghost boy freak, hunted by his parents, Valerie, the GIW. He was just plain Danny. The same as he had always been.

They had talked at great length about Danny Phantom and he was finally able to explain himself, his actions in the past, the events that had made him look evil. To his immense relief his parents had listened carefully to him and they had actually believed him. Because he was their son. They did seem uncomfortable when he mentioned overshadowing, but to his relief they didn't ask him if he had ever done that.

They also, very tentatively, questioned him about his time with Vlad and he managed to stay in control the whole time, trying his best to answer their questions without going into the painful details. He could see on their faces that they knew he wasn't telling them everything, but some things were just better left alone.

Jazz had been taking notes the whole time, frantically scribbling in her notebook and every now and then he had scowled at her for trying to analyze him, forgetting that a month ago he would have given his right arm for her to do so again. He didn't question his mood swings, he was keeping a delicate balance as it was and he didn't want her poking around in his psyche. In the end he just grabbed the notebook from her and told her to just eat her pizza and stop trying to figure him out, he'd get to her later.

"So how did you get to Tucker," Jazz asked him, taking one of the last slices from the huge pizza box that was on the table, carefully pushing the molten cheese back on it.

Sam laughed. "He annoyed the hell out of him by showing off his ghost powers," she smirked, "Tucker used to be jealous of Danny's powers."

She was sitting next to him on the floor, her back against the couch, watching the TV with a half eye. Every now and then he leaned against her to grab a new slice of pizza and she didn't seem to mind.

Tucker blushed. "It's nothing to be jealous off," he said, "I know that now..."

"So... are you going to try to annoy me too?" Jazz asked, staring at him intently. Danny shook his head.

"You're trying too hard. I'll figure something out, Jazzie," he said, purposely using the nickname he had had for her when they were younger, "I needed to get through to Tucker first, because I needed him for the ghost hunting. I can't handle two at the time."

Tucker looked at him in surprise, and also a little pleased. In the silence that followed they started to watch the TV again, where a group of lions was just starting to eat a gnu, tearing at the carcass. Tucker grabbed the remote and started flipping channels at a very high speed. Danny smacked him and tried to get the remote away from him but Tucker held it out of his reach.

"Cut it out!" Danny said, "How can you even see what's on this way?"

"Years of practice," Tucker said, "This is very efficient."

Danny pointed his finger at the remote and blasted it out of Tucker's hand, sending it flying. It landed on the couch between his parents. The happy chattering stopped abruptly and they all turned to stare at Danny. He felt the color drain from his face as he realized what he had done. How could he ever have thought he was normal, just like everybody else... He climbed to his feet.

"I'm...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... I'll be up in my room."

He dashed out of the living room and he heard his mother call after him, telling him to stop, to wait, but he paid no attention to her and he ran up the stairs. He slammed the door of his room behind him and leaned against it, feeling slightly dizzy, still a little weak from the ghost fight from that afternoon. What had he just done? He shouldn't use his ghost powers that way, they would think he was a freak. Which he was of course, but he had always liked pretending to be normal, as far as you could speak of normal in this house. Now that they knew, everything would be different.

He heard a soft cracking sound outside his room and he knew someone was coming up the stairs. He really didn't want to face anybody right then, so he quickly transformed and shot out of the house, while thinking this was another way of setting himself apart from others. Somehow he couldn't not use his ghost powers. They were part of his very being, it came as natural to him as breathing. Well, breathing in his human form.

He drifted above the house and looked down. Light was shining out the windows, giving the house a homey look, despite the huge 'Fenton Works' sign. He saw a light flicker on in his room and someone opened the window to look outside, casting a shadow on the street. Quickly he flew higher up in the dark sky, going invisible. If he didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be found. The figure in his room seemed to realize that too, because the window closed and the light went out.

The overcast sky was obscuring his view on the night sky so he flew even higher up, through the clouds, until he could see the stars. The view was magnificent and he looked at the constellations, floating on his back, his hands behind his head. He remembered going to the park sometimes, to go star gazing, because there weren't any street lights there to interfere. The view from up here was infinitely better though, one of the good things about his ghost powers.

The clouds up there looked like a fluffy landscape, forming snowy mountains and valleys, almost glowing in the faint star light. There was no moon and the milky way formed a hazy band of light across the sky. It looked like something from a fairy tale, unreal, magical. Danny wished he could stay up there forever, but was careful not to voice that. Desiree would have a field day if she heard.

He stayed up there for a long time, keeping a wary eye out for airplanes. He didn't know exactly where he was, or if he was anything near an air corridor and being hit by an airplane would be a dumb way to go.

Sighing he let himself slowly sink through the clouds again, embracing their cold dampness. For a while, he was nowhere. He could see only a couple of feet in every direction, his only indication of up or down the slight pull of gravity. The starlight was not enough to protrude the clouds and it quickly got very dark around him. It would stay that way until he reached the bottom of the clouds, which were lit from below by the lights of Amity Park. If he still was anything near the town. The wind could have blown him all out for all he knew.

He realized he had been a fool. Running away like that, not facing reality. It solved nothing, it only delayed the inevitable. At best, it got him completely lost.

Suddenly a soft chopping sound broke the cold, dark silence around him. He strained his ears, but couldn't make out where it was coming from. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on feeling through the fog, but it was messing up his ability to sense any beings, human or ghost. A feeling of dread came over him, and he let himself fall down faster.

Too late.

Something grabbed him from behind, slicing through his suit, cutting him in his arms. He cried out in surprise and started struggling to free himself, succeeding only partly. Yanking his left arm out of the one demon's grip he whirled around and blasted the other in it's face at close range, exploding it's head, showering him in it's cold, black blood. He still couldn't see, but he felt their leathery, cold skin against his neck as another one of them put its arm around it, almost choking him. A third and a fourth demon grabbed his legs and pulled, and then there were dozens of them, grabbing him, cutting him, sinking their teeth into his flesh, growling and hissing.

Danny screamed in pain and he felt his energy leaving him quickly. He had to get free, or he would revert back into his human form and at this altitude that would be a very bad idea. The chopping sound came closer, but he still couldn't see anything and in his panic he did the only thing left to him. He took a deep breath to let out his ghostly wail and then stopped.

"Hold still," a voice said.

He knew that voice. Automatically, he obeyed, months of conditioning kicking in. His mind seemed to shut down, unable to cope with reality anymore. Father had come for him. He would save him as always, take him into the helicopter so he wouldn't fall. He would punish him for disobeying him and after that everything would be alright.

* * *

Maddie closed the window in Danny's room. He obviously didn't want to be found right then, and she didn't want to upset him more by chasing after him. She thought she knew why Danny was so upset. All his life, he had desperately tried to be normal, pretending he had normal parents, trying to fit in at school. Jazz did that too, but she had had more success at it, by distancing herself from her family and their weird business. 

She felt slightly guilty about that. But she couldn't change who she was anymore than Jack could. And in their weirdness, they had always been a very close family. She had always thought that that was what mattered most and that it would be enough. But maybe not when you were a teenager, unsure of your place in the world, measuring your life by your status at school.

Slowly she descended the stairs and went back into the living room. The others had finished the pizza and were now watching the news on TV. They looked up when they noticed her standing in the door.

"Is he alright?" Tucker asked.

Maddie shrugged. "He took off. He'll be back."

She sat down with them.

"Did he do that often around you, using his powers I mean?" she asked Sam and Tucker.

"Eh, I guess so, yes. Sometimes. When he was sure nobody was watching. He usually grabs his books from his locker without opening it," Sam answered.

"Then why was he so upset about using his powers just now?" Maddie asked.

They all shook their heads. Jazz looked pensive.

"I still don't remember him," she said sadly, "But it seems to me that if he was never reluctant to use his powers in front of Sam or Tucker, it must be because of you."

She pointed at Maddie and Jack.

Maddie nodded and Jack looked surprised.

"Why would he be afraid of us?" he said, "He knows we accept him?"

"But he can no longer be normal," Maddie said sadly.


	22. Vesa

A/N: On with the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Vesa

The room came slowly into focus, it's swirling green and purple colors steadying, taking form. He still felt the lingering pain, pin pricks moving over his skin like sparks of electricity, making his limbs twitch every now an then. Hazily, uncomprehending, he looked at the snarling demons above him, their red eyes glowing menacingly, holding perfectly still. Too still. He blinked, closed his eyes and opened them again. They hadn't moved, and now that his eyes worked a little better he saw that he was looking at a painting on the ceiling.

He let out a small sigh in relief as he let his eyes wander over the gruesome painting, the brown monsters clawing and tearing at... people. He shuddered, knowing how that felt. Then he wondered where he was and who would enjoy such a painting on their ceiling, who would like to watch people being slaughtered. Then he thought about his own preference for horror movies.

"You are awake."

He blinked and tried to move his head to find the source of the voice. It was a soft, female voice and it sounded almost gentle. Slowly, painfully he moved his head sidewards and stared at the woman standing beside the bed. She seemed only a little taller than he was, with long blond hair and a slight blueish complexion. Her most startling feature were her eyes. They were blood red.

Danny pushed himself up, trying to think what he was doing there and where he had seen her before. Then it came back to him and he gasped, closing his eyes. Father had punished him for running away. He felt guilty. He shouldn't have run away like that, he shouldn't have failed his father in that way.

He felt a cool hand pushing him down again and he whimpered in pain at her touch.

"I'm sorry," she said, "Here, let me ease your pain."

She moved her hands over his body, stroking him, caressing him. He felt the pain leave him slowly and a feeling of contentment and warmth came over him. He opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Vesa," he said, remembering her name.

She smiled at him and he blushed as he realized that the only thing he was wearing was his boxers. He looked around apprehensively.

"Where are my clothes?" he asked her and blushed again when he saw her dress.

It was of a flimsy, silky fabric, clinging closely to her body and almost see-through, it didn't leave much to the imagination.

"You don't need them here," she smiled, "Besides, they were torn and dirty. He'll supply you with new clothes later."

Hastily he slid under the covers of the bed, which he had been laying on top of. Vesa's smile broadened.

"Don't you just love my bed? It's very comfortable, isn't it," she said, smirking.

Danny groaned. "Look, I just want my clothes back," he said, "please?"

She shrugged and walked away. He couldn't stop himself from looking at her and felt his body react to her swaying movements. She returned moments later, holding a torn and bloody t-shirt and equally torn and bloody cargo pants. Sweat broke out when he remembered what had caused the state they were in. He couldn't wear those.

"See," she said, "You'll just have to stay here until he returns. He will probably be a while though, so why don't we make ourselves comfortable?"

With that, she laid down on the bed beside him, thankfully on top of the covers. He tried to move away from her but found himself at the edge of the bed. He wondered what it would be like if she were to slide under the covers with him and quickly pushed that thought away. She was a ghost. Then again, so was he.

"S-so, what else can you do? I mean, besides heal?" he rasped, trying to divert her attention.

She smiled and stroked his cheek.

"I can make you feel very, very nice," she whispered in a husky voice.

He hugged the blankets a little closer to him. She was _not_ suggesting what he thought she was suggesting.

"I..I...," he stuttered, blushing madly, "Y-you were the one who made everybody forget?"

She pulled back a little, frowning at him. But then she smiled again and batted her eyelashes.

"I have many talents," she said, somehow making even that sound flirtatious.

"But you couldn't make _me_ forget?"

Anything to keep her talking. She shook her head and frowned a bit, plucking at the covers to remove some imaginary dust particle.

"We tried. It seems that your half ghost status resists my... interference. I cannot enter a ghost's mind, only humans. We thought that if we could weaken you enough, I'd be able to get through, but you were unusually resilient."

"So instead, you tortured me," he said bitterly.

She pouted. "Now, Danny, don't be such a bore. We made you _better_. We trained you."

She leaned closer to him again and he started to sweat.

"Look at you now," she whispered in his ear, "So strong, so quick and agile, so... powerful."

He tried to back away from her again and almost fell out of the bed.

"Why...why are you doing this," he squeaked.

"Silly boy," she giggled, leaning back again, to his relief, "I like you. And Vlad isn't here. Why don't we have some fun?"

Danny gulped as he started to imagine her idea of 'fun'.

"NO! I mean, no, why are you working for f...Vlad," he said.

She snarled and he instantly wished he hadn't asked. Her red eyes flashed even brighter, the room seemed to darken and he thought he saw the demons on the paining turn their heads towards him. Then it was gone and she just looked angry.

"Vlad has me under his power, just like you," she said.

"How?"

She looked at the silvery bands around his wrists.

"He has a ring. It binds us together. I have one too, but he's stronger than I am. I have to obey him. Much like you do."

He flinched at that. "How did he get that ring," he pressed.

She looked away, her eyes suddenly sad.

"I gave it to him. I thought he loved me. Boy was I wrong."

She was staring at some a spot on the wall. He almost felt sorry for her when he saw the forlorn look on her face, her loneliness. She almost looked human.

"He was so... charming in the beginning," she said suddenly, "The perfect gentleman. I was flattered by his attention and we had such a good time in the beginning. But he was always asking me questions about my powers, he always wanted to know what it was that I could do. I... I always try to make people feel good, you know. But he was more interested in the side effects... that I could make people forget they'd ever seen me. And then I found out that he didn't love me at all, that he loved... your mother and I was so angry... But by then I had given him that ring and he could control me. You know how it works. We had better obey him. But that doesn't mean that I can't get back at him every once in a while."

She turned to him, a feral grin on her face and he was suddenly captivated by her red glowing eyes. Something in his mind snapped.

"You're cute," she said and tore back the covers.

She moved closer and pressed her body against his. He felt his arms moving, wrapping themselves around her, pulling her close.

* * *

Maddie was rudely shaken from her slumber as the alarm on her son's bedside table started blaring it's obnoxious sound. He must have forgotten to turn it off. She pushed herself up from his bed and looked around. The room was exactly as it had been last night when she had gone in there to wait for him. 

She walked to the window and looked outside. It was light out and the street was gleaming from the rain that had fallen that night, but it was dry now. The heavily overcast sky gave everything a dreary look. There was no trace of Danny. She left his room and went downstairs, hoping to find him there, that he had come home without her noticing. She walked into the kitchen, but found only Jazz, sitting at the table. She looked up from her book and smiled, but her smile faded when she saw the worry on her mother's face.

"He's not back yet?"

Maddie shook her head. She felt sick.

"We... we need to find him," she said haltingly.

Suddenly she ran to the door, grabbing the keys to the GAV. Jazz was right on her heels.

They drove around the town for hours, but found no trace of him. They went by Sam's and Tucker's house, hoping he had shown up there, but of course they hadn't seen him either. In the end they went home again, hoping to find him there, but they only found Jack in the lab, tinkering with the Fenton Finder.

Maddie felt helpless. With all her knowledge, all her studies, all her inventions, she couldn't help her own son. Had he run away? Was he lying somewhere, injured in some ghost attack? His independence frightened her. He didn't need her anymore, like he had when he was little. She glanced at the place where the picture of her and four year old Danny had been. She had loved that picture and had looked at it often. Now it was gone forever and she and felt guilty. Of course he needed to grow up, but did it have to be so fast? Was she losing him again?

"Hello?"

She heard Sam's voice at the door.

"In here," she replied from the kitchen.

Sam and Tucker entered and looked around.

"He's not back yet?" Sam asked worriedly. Maddie shook her head.

"That's not normal," Sam said, "He would have let us know if he was held up somewhere, or in a ghost fight. Something has happened."

Maddie sighed. "We have no way to find him," she said, "We looked all over town, checked all the hospitals."

"Do you still have the Boomerang?" Tucker said, "We have used it to track Danny before."

"I don't know. I'll have to ask Jack." She went to the lab and came back a moment later. "He's looking for it," she said, "But he hasn't seen it in ages. It must be around somewhere."

They sat together in a worried silence while they listened to the noise that came from the lab. Boxes were being overturned, closets were emptied, the contents of drawers were spilled on the floor, everything accompanied by exclamations from Jack when he found something else that he had been missing. Jazz came down from her room and joined them at the kitchen table.

Finally, after an hour, they heard a loud 'Eureka' from the lab, followed by bouncing footsteps on the stairs. Jack stormed into the kitchen and held a dusty, ectoplasm covered boomerang in his big hands.

"It was behind the closet in the corner. Don't know how it got there," he boomed.

Sam grinned, thinking Danny probably hid it there, tired of being hit by the thing all the time.

They rushed outside and Jack threw the device into the air. It flew away, turned and flew back at them again, passed over them and turned again. It kept doing that until Tucker grabbed it out of the air in passing.

"That's odd," he said, "Maybe the ectoplasm on it throws it off."

He wiped it clean with his sleeve and threw it again, but there was no change. Maddie shook her head.

"Maybe he is out of range. Or maybe it is not tuned into his signature," she said.

To her surprise Sam and Tucker went pale. Sam shook her head furiously.

"No!" she said, "Danny hid that thing behind the closet, I'm sure of it. He did that for a reason! It kept homing in on him, even halfway across the country. If only..."

"What? If only what? Sam, what are you not telling us?" Maddie asked, "Why are you children always trying to keep everything from us!"

Sam took a deep breath, knowing she really needed to fill in Danny's parents about everything. She hoped he wouldn't be too mad at her for it. But his parents needed all the information if they were going to find Danny.

"I'm not sure the Boomerang will still find him, even if it is still tuned in to his ecto signature," she said.

Maddie was suddenly struck by the idea that her son had an _ecto signature_.

"His signature may have been changed when he escaped from Vlad," Sam continued.

Maddie stood very still. Jack looked at her.

"Hey didn't you..." he started, but before he could continue, Maddie had rushed back into the house.

She ran to the book case and started rummaging between the old studies she had done in college. She needed only a moment and ran out again, holding an old booklet. She showed it to them. It read _"Ecto alterations, Experiments on semi-ectoplasm" by Madeline Hayes_.

She opened it and quickly scanned through it. It had been twenty years, she hardly remembered anything of it. She almost laughed at some of the statements she made in it until she remembered the seriousness of the situation. Then she gasped and they all looked at her in anticipation.

"It says here that the ecto signature of a ghost changes when the nature of the ghost changes," she said.

"What does that mean?" Jazz asked.

Maddie took a deep breath. She really didn't want to say this, the implications being devastating.

"It means that if a...benign ghost, if there is such a thing, turns malevolent...it's signature changes... or vice versa. But I've never heard of the latter."

They were all silent.

"Danny is not evil," Sam said vehemently.

"But he said he had to change himself to get free," Tucker said.

"And he said he changed back again!" Sam yelled.

Tucker hung his head. "Yes. That's what he said. But let's face it Sam. He's not the same."

Jazz cleared her throat. "Um," she said, "Why don't we try the ghost zone?"

* * *

_Just a little announcement, I've been working on a continuation of my one shot 'Still Here' and I'm now far enough into the story to start posting it. Which I will do in a few days (editing, editing...). But working on that story will take time out of this one, so updates will slow down a little... I'm having a hard enough time making my (OK, self-appointed) deadlines as it is. _

_So start screaming if you don't want me to do that :) On the other hand, there's only about three or four more chapters left for this one... and you may like 'Still Here', because it's dark and depressing :)  
_


	23. Executioner

A/N: Sorry. There's no excuse. Just plain laziness. And the chapters seem to be getting shorter as we near the end.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Executioner

Again Danny woke up in the ghostly green and purple room, but this time feeling warm and comfortable, lying under the covers of the king size bed. He always loved this moment between sleeping and waking, knowing he was almost waking up, but not quite. Wondering what time it was he breathed deeply and froze, feeling someone move beside him. With some difficulty he opened his eyes and turned his head, to see a flurry of long blond hair on the pillow, her face turned away from him. He brought his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes, yawning.

"What just happened?" he muttered to himself.

"Yes Daniel, I would very much like to know that," Vlad said.

He shot up and pulled the covers close to him, trying to keep both himself and Vesa, who lazily opened her eyes, covered. Plasmius was floating a few inches above the floor, his arms crossed, his expression unreadable.

"Ehm, I ehm...," Danny stuttered, turning bright red.

"Hello Vladdy," Vesa said lazily, "We were just having some fun. You should try that. It would make you less uptight...Aaarch!"

She yelled as Vlad knocked her off the bed, sending her sprawling on the floor. One hand still on the bed, she pulled herself up on her knees, touching her lip, her eyes blazing. But she remained quiet.

"Don't ever call me Vladdy," he hissed and turned to Danny. "Get up!"

Slowly Danny got up and looked at the floor, not daring to look up. He had angered father, again, and he felt the fear churning in his stomach, paralizing him.

"Look at me!" Vlad yelled.

Danny slowly looked up and saw the two black rings appear around Vlad's waist, one traveling upwards, the other down, revealing Vlad Masters. Or what was left of him.

Danny gasped in shock when he caught sight of Vlad's ruined face. Half his hair was gone, and so was part of his nose. His face was scarred beyond repair by a massive burn wound.

"You did this," Vlad yelled at him, "And you're going to pay for it! But first..."

He turned to Vesa, who had now climbed to her feet and seemed to be hovering slightly behind the bed, somehow looking more ghostly than before, her hair waiving around her as if she was under water. She looked like a mermaid, except for the fish tail.

"You just made a fatal mistake my dear. I don't need you anymore."

Vesa backed away somewhat and her expression changed from annoyance to outright fear.

"You can't kill me," she said in a shrill voice, laughing half-heartedly, "The ring won't let you!"

Vlad smirked at her and it looked horrible on his face.

"I can't. But he can."

He pointed at Danny who felt a shiver run up his spine. Kill her? You can kill a ghost? He started shaking his head and Vlad pressed a button on the device that controlled the wristbands. Danny was on the floor instantly, screaming.

"Get up!" Vlad said when the pain had stopped.

Danny jumped to his feet as fast as he could. He stood, swaying and shivering, fearfully waiting for Vlad's command, knowing he would obey no matter what.

"I suggest you go ghost now, before she conjures up any more of her pets," Vlad said mildly.

Danny swirled around and jumped out of the way of the charging demon. He transformed in a flash, rammed his fist into the demon's head and released a massive ecto blast. From that distance, the effect was devastating. The demon's head exploded, it's black blood splattering across the room, hitting him in the face and darkening his gloves. It's remains dropped on the bed, staining the crimson sheets so that it looked like somebody had spilled a bottle of ink over it. Immediately the thing started smoldering, producing a thin streak of smoke and he wondered if the bed would catch fire. He turned and saw Vesa standing with her back against the wall, her face contorting in fierce concentration.

Two more demons shimmered into existence in front of her and he had no trouble with those. He looked at her frightened face and saw the realization there that she couldn't win. He backed away, shaking his head.

"I don't want to kill you," he said to her, but it wasn't true.

Though the thought of having to kill her revolted him, he desperately wanted to please his father, to regain his approval. He knew he couldn't technically kill her, because she was already dead, but since he could destroy her demons easily enough, that probably meant he could do that to her as well. He looked briefly at Vlad. She snarled at him.

"But you're going to anyway," she hissed, "He'll make you."

She raised her hands and blasted him across the room, slamming him into the purple wall. He was used to that though, so he was on his feet instantly and blasted her right back. She screamed and lunged at him, at the same time creating two more demons that attacked him from either side, their claws extended, their expressions matching Vesa's snarl. They were part of her, he realized, she commanded them.

Jumping sideways he managed to evade one of them, it's claws only grazing his leg. He slammed into the other, grabbed it and flung it at Vesa. She didn't stop, brushing it aside as if it were a puppet. More demons popped into existence behind her and Danny realized that now _he _was in trouble. He had to get her to stop.

"Kill her," the familiar little voice in the back of his mind taunted, "She manipulated you."

He pushed his anger back. With a sick feeling he raised his right hand and formed the sharp arc of sizzling ectoplasm that could cut through almost anything. With a swift sweep he beheaded the two nearest demons and advanced on her.

"Please stop," he said, "We don't have to do this."

For a moment they both stood still, panting. He looked at her, the woman, no, ghost he had held close not five minutes ago and was now a deadly adversary. She looked back at him and for a moment he thought she looked sad.

"Daniel," Vlad said, a warning in his voice.

He tensed, hardening himself, knowing he couldn't stop now. She opened her mouth and screamed, creating ten demons all at once.

He couldn't help himself, he reacted instantly. Jumping forward, he ran his green, sword-like arc right through her chest. A feral grin appeared on his face and he stepped even closer, pushing her backwards. Her eyes widened in surprise and he let go of the arc, dissolving it. She staggered backwards and landed on the bed, black blood streaming out of the wound and he realized that she had that in common with her demons. She opened her mouth to say something but a gulf of black blood came out, choking her.

A tingling feeling went through his arms and he looked in wonderment at the wristbands. Could he do it again? Could he push himself over the edge again? If he did, would he ever get back? The darkness in his head receded and he realized it didn't matter, he could never escape his father, it was wrong of him to even consider it.

He stared at the ghost laying on the bed. The demons popped out of existence, leaving the room quiet but for the choking sound that came from Vesa.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm sorry."

Her eyes glazed over and she grew quiet, the red fire in her eyes extinguished. Then she dissolved, her form fading into a green mist that dissipated quickly. He shuddered when it touched him momentarily, then it was gone.

Danny let out a scream as a shock went though him and reverted him to his human form. He stumbled forwards against the bed and sank to his knees on the slippery floor, one hand desperately grasping the edge of the bed. Vlad advanced on him and threw something at him.

"Get dressed," he said coldly, "You have work to do."

He leaned closer, grabbed his hair and yanked his head backwards, bringing tears to his eyes.

"And if you think you can do that neat little trick to remove the wristbands again, just try. It will be very unpleasant."

* * *

_She tentatively opened the door of the Nasty Burger and looked inside, doubting whether she did the right thing by looking for her brother right now. He had been very upset earlier and she wondered what it was that Mrs Spectra had wanted to accomplish by humiliating him like that. But she was a very respected psychologist and she herself only a junior in high school, so she had no real right to question her._

_She spotted her brother and his friends instantly, sitting at their usual table by the window, arguing over something, so she stepped inside and walked over to them. When Danny saw her approach, the scowl on his face deepened and she quickly tried to reassure him that she meant well, that she was only interested in his well being. Instead of listening to her he seemed distracted for a moment, a surprised and frightened look on his face as he started to look around the restaurant. Then he yelled at her to take his friends, why don't you and ran off. _

_Determined to have him hear her out for once she followed him outside and got the biggest surprise in her life. He was standing there, his fists clenched, a determined expression on his face and he... transformed. Two white rings appeared around his waist, splitting and as they traveled over his body, the goofy, clumsy teenager her brother was changed into the elusive Danny Phantom. _

Jazz stared out of the small window in the back of the specter speeder, in shock. She had been fretting over Danny, who was her lost brother, whom she didn't remember despite her trying. She had grudgingly accepted him in the beginning, with the proof of his Fenton DNA opening the portal, although she still had worried about what it did to her mother. She had come to know him the past few weeks and had discovered he was a very complex person. She had liked him.

Then last Friday she had discovered that _he_ was Danny Phantom. And it hadn't surprised her half as much as it should have. So she must have known before and she somehow remembered that. That was encouraging. To help Danny, she needed to be able to compare his present personality with who he had been. She was sure there was something wrong with him, his happy presence being alternated with dark bursts of anger and depression. If only he would talk to her...

They had traversed the ghost zone for hours now, following the Boomerang. They were all there, none of them had wanted to stay behind. Sam and Tucker had convinced her parents easily, they had been in the ghost zone many times before and knew what to expect and of the dangers. Of course they had never been in there without Danny.

Her parents had been adamant at first that she should stay behind, that it was dangerous, but she had flatly refused.

"If Sam and Tucker are going, then I am too", she had said and that settled it.

So they had all entered the specter speeder, taking some supplies and blankets with them as they had no idea how long they would be. When they had passed through the portal, they had opened the front screen and Sam had thrown the Boomerang. It took off without hesitation, the tiny red light on it blinking. It had found Danny.

So for the past hours, having nothing else to do, she had been worrying about what could have happened to him. He had told them about the demon like ghosts that had attacked the town lately, the same ghosts that Vlad used to... train him? What if they had attacked him again while he was out? What if they had killed him, turning him full ghost? What if that was the reason he was in the ghost zone? It was that last thought that did it, firing off a chain reaction in her head, like the falling domino stones at the spirit week speech.

She had seen him transform. And she had kept that to herself for the longest time, until he finally found out when he was trapped in the future and she had sent him a message.

She started to cry. Now that she finally found him in her memories, she had lost him all over again.

* * *

_I actually went and watched the episode again where Jazz finds out... funny, I never do that anymore.  
_


	24. Losing it

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Losing it

_He was standing in his cell, chained to the wall, unable to sit down. Thirst took away every other thought but the question of when Vlad would come with the water._

_He was running through the woods, Skulker on his heels. He turned suddenly and hit the metallic ghost in a sweeping kick that sent it flying. As he approached carefully, the ghost lifted his arm and blasted him against a tree. In his human form, that hurt._

_Sam kissed him._

_The three demons closed in on him. He managed to avoid one but the other two slashed his arms with their claws. He screamed in pain as they grabbed a hold of him, shredding his suit, his skin, his flesh. Then they suddenly dropped him and hung still. He fell to the ground hard and reverted to his human form. "Pay attention Daniel," Vlad said._

_He was sitting on his bed in his room. Sam and Tucker stared at the scars on his wrists. Sam grabbed his hand and he started to cry._

_Black blood flooded out of her mouth as she fell backwards on the bed. The bed she had been in only minutes ago. She was choking on her own blood and he watched in fascination._

_His mother looked at him from the front seat of the GAV. "Danny? Don't you have something to tell us?" He transformed into his human form and his father hit the brakes. Then they both took out their guns and started shooting him. He raised his hands and blasted them out of the GAV._

_Father opened the door and stared at him in surprise. He raised his hands and blasted him out of the room. He followed him into the hallway and looked down on the severely burnt man lying against the wall. He raised his hand again and let out another of those red blasts, setting his father on fire._

_He was walking down the street, minding his own business, when he was suddenly surrounded. "Your wallet," one of the boys growled. He responded automatically to the threat, jumping at the boy. He took him down with one blow, jumped sidewards to grab another and kicked a third in the process. It was over in less than a minute and he picked up his bag. His eyes were glowing red._

_Valerie was chasing him. He turned around and blasted her ecto gun from her hands. As she took out an even bigger gun he rushed into her and pushed her off her hover board. Then he blasted the hover board's engines and watched her fall to the ground. She hit it with a sickening thud._

_Sam kissed him._

Danny was staring at the wall. He was losing it, he knew, voices in his head talking to him, hissing, arguing. There was that familiar presence, that dark spot in his head that he had battled so successfully the past months, but it was back full force now, taunting him, laughing at him, telling him to give up, give in, he should know what he was. The other side of him just wanted to scream at everything, to let go of his mind so he didn't have to see the memories again. He couldn't decide which one was right.

Father had told him to stay here and he did, he hadn't moved, he just stood there, staring, trying to push the images out of his mind, trying to keep the insanity at bay. He didn't know what was real anymore and what he had made up. Had he killed Valerie? Had he killed Vesa? Had he killed those boys who were trying to rob him? Had he killed...his parents?

Had Sam kissed him?

He was standing in what was left of Vesa's liar. He looked up briefly but the painting on the ceiling was gone, as was the bed and all the other things that had been in the room.. It all seemed to fade away now that she was gone and already he could see the swirling green of the ghost zone through the walls as they became transparent, moving away from him, as if the liar was expanding outwards.

_Black blood splattered on him as he pushed the sizzling arc further into her chest, feeling surprisingly warm on his hands through his gloves._

He looked at his hands. They were clean now, but they would be since he had transformed back into his human form. Maybe it didn't happen. He wondered how long he had been standing there. His back ached, every now and then he had to catch himself from falling down.

* * *

"Real world item detected." 

Tucker jumped up. "We're getting close," he said.

They were going through a part of the ghost zone that didn't contain as many doors. They had passed through very weird places, ever following the spinning Boomerang in it's wake, sometimes quietly talking to each other, but mostly quiet. Tucker, who was sitting in the front seat next to Jack, looked at the monitor to find out what the 'real world item' was.

"It...looks like a gun," he said.

Maddie peered over his shoulder. He was right.

"What does a ghost want with a gun?" she asked.

At that moment the Boomerang came to a full stop in front of a pale purple door that seemed to waiver a little, as if it wasn't really there. They all looked at it, Jazz hanging over Tucker's shoulder, Sam squeezing herself between Maddie and Jack. The door looked old and worn and it seemed almost transparent.

"How do we get in?" Maddie asked.

Just as she said that, the door opened. She looked at her husband, who shrugged. He had been uncharacteristically quiet the whole trip, stupefied by the ghost zone. Carefully he pushed the lever and the Specter Speeder moved forwards, following the Boomerang inside. They watched as the tracking device flew straight across the room and hit the person standing there. He didn't move.

"Danny," Sam whispered.

Before anybody could stop her she ran to the door, opened it and jumped out.

"Sam wait," Tucker yelled, but she didn't listen to him.

Tucker grabbed an ecto blaster and ran after her, followed by Jack, Maddie and Jazz who didn't want to be left behind. Throwing all caution in the wind they rushed up to Danny and stopped in front of him.

He didn't seem to see them. His vacant eyes seemed to look straight through them as he was swaying on his feet. He was wearing a loose fitting black coverall and around his wrists were silvery wrist bands that seemed to glow slightly.

The room they were in was empty. It seemed out of focus somehow, like it wasn't really there. It was also huge. Maddie approached him carefully.

"Danny," she said, waving her hand in front of his face. He didn't flinch. "Danny what's wrong?"

"Daniel if you please."

The voice came from behind them. Before they could turn around however, Danny was moving. He yanked the ecto blaster from Maddie's hand, took two quick steps and floored Tucker who was trying to blast Plasmius. He kicked the ecto gun out of his hand and grabbed Sam, hooking his arm around her neck, but let her go when he found no weapons on her. He moved with a silent efficiency, the stony expression on his face never changing. Jack and Jazz moved away from him, but he ignored them as they were empty handed.

"Very good my boy," Plasmius said.

Danny walked up to him, carrying the two ecto blasters. He put them down on the floor and turned to stand next to the vampire like ghost, his hands on his back and his gaze on the ground.

Plasmius floated a few inches above the ground and smirked at them.

"You took your time in getting here," he said, "Danny has been waiting for you for ages, haven't you my boy."

Danny remained silent, knowing he wasn't to speak. It was so much easier just following orders, less painful.

As Tucker slowly picked himself up from the ground, Maddie stepped forwards, shaking with fury.

"You...you monster," she hissed to the ghost, "How dare you take my son from me! How dare you hurt him!"

Plasmius was in front of her in an instant, grabbing her face in his hand and bringing his face close to her's.

"I'll show you a monster," he growled.

He backed away from her a little and two black rings appeared around his waist, one traveling upwards and the other down, similar to Danny's transformation, turning him into Vlad Masters. Maddie stared at him in shock, taking in his ruined face, strangely out of place over the immaculate black suit.

"Your precious little boy did this," he said menacingly. Maddie tried to move away from him but he grabbed her throat and pulled her close. "I have no chance with you now have I," Vlad growled.

"You never had a chance," she choked, "I love Jack!"

From the corner of her eyes she saw a green ecto blast and she heard Jack cry out in pain. She tried to turn her head but Vlad held her in an iron grip.

"Thank you Daniel," Vlad said as he glanced sidewards to look at Jack. "Daniel is _my_ son now. He'll do anything to protect me. Including shooting his former father."

He pushed her away from him and she stumbled backwards.

"Danny," Maddie said to her son, trying to see him behind Vlad, standing perfectly still again as his father was moaning on the ground, "Please. Don't do this. You don't have to listen to him. We love you."

She thought she saw a flicker of unease cross her son's face before it went blank again.

"He's still there," she thought.

"Ah, but you're wrong there my dear," Vlad said.

He nodded at Danny who raised his hands and sent out green glowing ecto ropes that quickly twisted themselves around them, binding them tightly.

"He'll do anything I tell him to do, don't you Daniel."

He took out the small device from his pocket and pressed the red button. With a groan Danny fell down on the floor, but he didn't scream. He just laid there, twitching.

"Stop it!" Maddie yelled, "Stop it! Don't hurt him!"

The others were screaming too, but she hardly heard them as she got to her feet and crashed into Vlad, but since her arms were bound tightly against her body he pushed her back easily. He bend over to her.

"What would you do to make it stop hmmm?" he asked her.

Maddie looked at her writhing son. "Anything," she said, looking into Vlad's eyes from up close. "You're insane," she whispered.

"I am not insane," he yelled at her.

To her relief he pressed the red button on the device again and Danny stopped twitching. He just laid there, panting, sweat trickling of his brow, his fists clenched.

"Get up," Vlad ordered him, moving away from Maddie.

Danny didn't move right away and Vlad's finger hovered above the red button again.

"Danny move," Sam said hoarsely behind her back, "Please try!"

He lifted his head slowly and stared at Sam, his eyes unfocused. He placed his hands on the ground and pushed himself up. Shakily he managed to get to his feet, swaying, taking short, quick breaths. Maddie's heart ached, seeing him like that.

"Is that what you went through all those months," she thought, "No wonder you're so messed up. In fact, you've been doing great, considering."

Vlad walked over to Danny, taking something out of his pocket and placing it into Danny's hands. Maddie felt a new wave of fear coming over her when she saw what it was. Danny looked at her for a moment, raised his right hand and pointed the gun at Jack.

Vlad stepped aside and grinned madly.

"He really is insane," Maddie thought.

She couldn't utter a sound and she looked at her husband. He had managed to get on his knees and was breathing heavily, staring directly at his son.

"He's going to die by the hands of the son he doesn't remember he has," Maddie thought desperately.

"Danny!" she yelled at him, "Danny snap out of it! You did it before, remember!"

Danny was swaying on his feet, gripping the gun tightly. She could see him hesitate, almost lowering the gun and for the first time an emotion showed up on his face: fear.

"Daniel," Vlad said menacingly to him, "remember what happens when you disobey me."

Time seemed to stop. Maddie could feel her heart beating in slow thumps, unable to breathe, unable to speak. She turned to look at Jack in slow motion, seeing the sweat trickling down his face as he sat there, staring at his son. Jazz was yelling something, but her voice seemed to come from afar, not making any sense and Maddie turned back to Danny and started moving towards him in an attempt to put herself between him and Jack, knowing she would be too late.

Danny whirled and pulled the trigger, his eyes flashing red for a moment.


	25. Control

A/N:...I'm so far behind with everything it isn't funny anymore... this vacation thing is ruining my schedule and my concentration and I'm basically sitting in the sun all day instead of at my computer. To make things worse I'm leaving for Italy next week so I'll try to finish this story before that. Don't expect any updates on 'Still here'. I might drop a one shot on you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Control

Father placed something in his hands, something cold and surprisingly heavy. He knew what it was and what he was supposed to do with it. He glanced at the brown haired woman on the ground for a moment...mother. His mother. Then he shifted his gaze to the man in the orange jump suit, immobilized by his ecto ropes. He looked right back at him, silent. Danny could feel his fear but the man didn't show it.

"He should be afraid," Danny thought, "I'm going to kill him."

The thought surprised him. He didn't want to do it, he didn't want to kill anyone, yet he raised the gun and pointed it at...his father. That couldn't be. Vlad was his father and he should always obey his father. Yet to kill someone... but he had done it before, right? Hadn't he killed Valerie? He vividly remembered how she had hit the ground with a terminal velocity while he had floated there, only mildly interested.

Or had he? He also remembered killing his parents, but they were right here... no they weren't, because they weren't really his parents, he only thought they were. Father had been right to punish him, for thinking things like that, for running away. He couldn't disobey his father.

The pressure in his head increased and he tried to stay focussed for the task at hand, ignoring the constant whispering echoing through his mind, making suggestions in a voice that sounded suspiciously like his own. He started to tremble and gripped the gun tightly, putting his index finger on the trigger, fear washing over him like a tidal wave. The brown haired woman, no, his mother, yelled something at him. He didn't understand what she was saying but he hesitated nonetheless.

"Daniel," father said to him, "remember what happens when you disobey me."

He remembered alright. A cold feeling went up his spine and something tugged at the back of his mind, trying to take over, telling him to end it now, end the pain. Then that familiar feeling entered him and everything seemed to slow down. He was going to shoot his father. From the corner of his eyes he saw his mother starting to move, but he knew she would be far too late for what he was going to do. A strange detatchement came over him and he whirled around and pressed the trigger. He was an exelent shot. He didn't miss.

His ears were ringing from the loud bang. Carefully he placed the gun on the ground and walked over to his father. The others had gone silent and he didn't look at them, afraid of what he would see in their eyes. He was a murderer, he murdered his own father, just shot him... dead. Silently he bend over and removed the shiny little remote control from his father's deathly grip. He was lucky the man hadn't pressed any buttons when dying.

He studied the device, ignoring the voices that he heard behind him that were interfering with the voices in his head. They were calling his name, begging him to release them. He waved his hand absentmindedly to dissolve the ecto ropes.

The red button caused pain. The blue button allowed him to go ghost. There were no other buttons. How was he going to get the wrist bands off?

He felt arms around him, pulling him close. Someone kept saying his name over and over and he finally looked up into his mothers eyes. He felt a bit uncomfortable with her display of affection. He couldn't affort to break down now. Then someone else approached.

"Danny," his father said.

Danny looked at him and smiled. He pulled away from his mother and placed the remote in his father's hands.

"Be careful with that," he said, "See if you can figure out a way to get this off me."

He pointed at the wrist bands. Then he stepped back and looked at his family and friends. Good thing they didn't know what was going on in his head. On the one side was the insanity lurking, trying to take over to send him down screaming. It was held in check by the familiar dark spot in his head, that contained his anger, his hatred, his desire to destroy. He felt detached from both, emotionless and cold.

"Danny," his father said again, "I remember now."

Shouts of joy sounded through the empty room, hands were patting his back and Danny was engulfed in a bone cracking hug by his father.

"It seems so strange that I could just forget about you," his father said to him, pushing him back to hold him at arm's length.

In an instant, Danny was on an emotional roller coaster, his happiness that his father remembered him alternating with his hate for Vlad and Vesa that they had made him forget. And then his happiness turned to the fact that they were both dead, by his hands. He felt the rush go through him and he knew he had to stop it quickly or he would become very dangerous to anybody who was around. He closed his eyes and balled his fists.

"Please let go," he said to his father with clenched teeth.

His father stepped back and looked at him worriedly, as Danny fought to keep control, breathing hard, wrapping his arms around himself. And then he was on his knees, gasping for air, the voices of his parents echoing in his mind.

"K-keep away," he hissed, keeping his eyes closed to hide the red glow coming from them.

He felt them move away a little and he started concentrating on hammering back the darkness that was almost overwhelming him. He really needed to walk, to concentrate on his footsteps, but he didn't dare to move, afraid he'd lose it, so instead he concentrated on sitting very still.

Slowly, he became aware of the silence surrounding him as he started to calm down. Hesitantly he opened his eyes and looked up, knowing they were back to their familiar blue again and he wondered how much time had passed. His mother was standing close by, her hands pressed against her face as she watched him with tears in her eyes. His father was standing next to her, his big arms around her shoulders to steady her.

Slowly, Danny rose to his feet, pushing his face back into that impassive expression he had worn before.

"Danny?" Jazz said softly, looking at him with a knowing look on her face.

He shook his head and shot her a warning look. "Not now, Jazz."

His father had let go of his mother and was examining the small remote control. Danny sighed and looked at his mother, who was now looking at him uncertainly. They were afraid of him, he realized, and rightly so.

"You'd better get going," he said.

Maddie shook her head. "You're coming with us young man," she said.

Danny shrugged and turned to his father. "Any luck with that?" he asked him, as his father was tinkering with the device.

At that moment a shock went through him and he hissed in pain. The wristbands suddenly lost their glow and clicked open.

"Sorry about that," his father said, "But they're open now."

Danny took the wristbands off, threw them in the air while switching to his ghost form and blasted them into a million pieces. He knew he used way to much power to do that, but it felt good. Destruction would always feel good to him now. He turned to his family and friends once again.

"You need to get back home," he said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible, "I have to take care of something."

He shifted his gaze to his dead father...Vlad. Not his father.

"I'm pretty messed up," he thought.

Then he wondered if Vlad was a full ghost now, but he didn't think so. He would have shown up by now. Sam finally stepped up to him and smiled hesitantly, placing her hand on his arm. He tensed, but tried not to show it.

"I'm glad you're back," she said and pecked him on his cheek.

That reminded him of something.

"Did we...ever...kiss?"

She blinked at him and started to stutter.

"Y-yes we did, in school, it was a _fake _kiss because we were caught in the office...Don't you remember?"

He nodded vaguely. "I wasn't sure if it was real," he said. "How is Valerie?"

"Fine, last I saw her," Tucker stepped in.

Danny felt like rubbing his eyes. He could no longer trust his memory, he didn't know what his insane mind had made up or what was real. He looked around Vesa's fading liar. She must be gone, so that memory was probably true. He felt sick.

Abruptly he turned away from them.

"Go home," he said as he walked over to Vlad's motionless form, stopping briefly to pick something up before he reached him. "I'll be there in a little while."

Carefully, gently, he picked the billionaire up and lifted himself off the ground. Not looking back at them he took off through the door, in the direction of Vlad's portal in Colorado.


	26. Epilogue

A/N: Last one! Yes I know it stops quite suddenly but you can fill in the rest yourself. I've considered several endings in various degrees of happiness, but I've decided to just leave it at this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Epilogue

"_I'll be there in a little while."_

That was what he had said. Two whole months ago. Maddie had gone through the stages of hope, anxious anticipation, dread, losing hope and finally acceptance. He wasn't coming back. Her little boy was gone and she felt empty.

The sun was shining brightly outside, people were smiling on the street, oblivious of her distress. They had tried to look for him, but they were seriously impaired by the fact that the Boomerang had disappeared. It simply hadn't been there when they looked for it in Vesa's liar in the ghost zone.

Sometimes she wondered if Danny had taken it with him. If that was true then he didn't want to be found. She lived on that thought, that somehow he was still alive and would come back some day.

Vlad Masters had been found in his Colorado chalet, shot dead after having been missing for two months. The investigation was at a stand still. There were no fingerprints, no clue that someone entered the house. They did find some strange equipment in the house, but most of it had been smashed to pieces. The computers were gone too, apparently destroyed in some intense fire.

Maddie knew Danny had done that to prevent others finding out about Vlad's ghost research and his secret. But why hadn't he come home afterwards? She could think of only one reason. He couldn't come home because he was unable too. Because he was dead.

And so she was torn back and forth between her hope that he was alive and her despair that he was dead.

Automatically she loaded her groceries into the GAV. She just had to keep on going, life went on. It had surprised her that the world kept moving, while everything had seemed to stop for her. People were going about their business as usual, unknowing of the tragedy befallen onto others, laughing in the streets, having fun. It somehow seemed inappropriate and she wanted to scream a them to stop and think, Danny was dead and they were _laughing_.

She supposed it was always that way.

Sam had really taken it hard. She had been out of school for two whole weeks until her parents made her go again. She seemed like a shadow of her former self, withdrawn and quiet, her eyes dull. Tucker was unable to cheer her up with his optimism that Danny would return when he was ready, that nothing could bring him down. Lately, his optimism seemed strained though.

The both of them came by often, as if somehow they could hold on to Danny by being where he was supposed to be. Maddie found their presence disturbing in a way, as they were constantly theorizing about what might have happened to him or where he might have gone. She didn't have the heart to send them away though. They discussed his mental state often and openly, sitting at the kitchen table and Maddie listened to them, learning things about her son that astounded her.

She closed the back door of the GAV and walked to the front of the oddly shaped vehicle, looking around as usual, scanning the area for Danny. She did it subconsciously now, noting every dark haired teen that remotely fit the description, discarding them when convinced it wasn't him. They no longer tried to lock her up for doing that and she restrained herself, not approaching and scaring these innocent boys.

Wiping the sweat of her brow she climbed behind the wheel and closed the door. For a moment she just sat there, then shook her head, started the car and drove away slowly. She moved with the traffic in a haze, automatically stopping at traffic lights, turning where she was supposed to turn, switching lanes at the appropriate moments. Before she knew it, she was approaching her home.

Jazz seemed to be the most calm about the situation. On the way back through the ghost zone she had explained Jack's suddenly remembering by stating that his worst fear had always been rejection by his children, knowing that he wasn't the ideal father for them. You can't get more rejected than being shot.

Through the past two months the only comment Jazz had made about the whole situation was that they had to be patient, he'd work it out, insisting doing it on his own. She refused to discuss the matter any further, but Maddie had heard her crying in her room late at night.

When unloading the GAV, trying without much success to grab all of the bags at once, she remembered the strange, yet encouraging happenings from a week ago. She had been unloading the GAV, just as she was doing now, when she had heard a voice behind her and she had almost dropped her bags.

"Mrs Fenton?"

She had turned and had found herself face to face with none other than Mr Lancer, who was holding a brown envelope in his hands and looking at her uncertainly. He had approached her quietly and had handed it to her.

"Strange thing occurred," he had said, "And I believe this is your...son's. I seem to remember him attending the school before and yet he was introduced as a new student. And then I found that."

He had pointed at the envelope and she had opened it. It was an old report card from eighth grade and on the front was the name of it's owner in curly letters: Daniel Fenton. She had just stood there, staring at it.

"We had a ghost attack in the school's office and it was severely damaged. We found it when we were cleaning up. It was under one of the filing cabinets."

He had seemed at a loss for words after that while she had clutched the report card so tightly it almost crumbled in her hands, her knuckles going white. She had managed to thank him and he had left, still bearing a slightly confused look on his face.

She looked at the bags resignedly, deciding it was too much to carry after all, so she took only half of them in her arms, the bottles in them slightly clanking against eachother, while fumbling with her keys. She turned to walk to the front door and stopped. Someone was sitting on the steps, a thin figure with long black hair obscuring his face, dirty green oversized coat, torn jeans tucked in tattered black combat boots. His head was hanging and his elbows were resting on his knees, which somehow gave him a defeated appearance. He looked totally unfamiliar and she was about to ask him to move out of the way when he turned his head to her and she looked into his blue eyes.

With a loud crash the bags fell on the sidewalk.

* * *

_This is it, I'm done, finally! This story has gotten way longer than I thought it would be and I had some trouble staying focussed on this. I think I managed to improve my writing during this story, I'll use everything I've learned in the next one (well, I'll try). I won't be using flashbacks this way again, too much trouble and too confusing. On the other hand, it was fun trying to obscure the the whole story, slowly revealing what was going on.  
_

_Thank you for reading and of course a big thank you to all my reviewers who kept encouraging me:_

_ShonaiulaRose, animegurl088, Ali Phantom, Emissary of Honesty, Twilight-Phantom66, FunkyFish1991, DP fan, Arashi Inu, cordria, Kovva, mushroomcloudslooklikebroccoli, I Collect Bananas, DPshadow, TexasDreamer01, Kybo, bluename, Dannyandsamlover, KieiNeko, hittocerebattosai, Cloud97, Anna Lee Gray, Karimlan di Sindihan, gjcoolio, Writer's-BlockDP, NNF, fan-girls2.0, Souxie 2.0, egyptianqueen777, passionateartist, christine, EvilRanma, stefania._

_I'm off, I'll be back in about three weeks, I'll answer any reviews then._

_Ciao:)_

_Edit 12/10/2008: There's a companion story to this in my one shot collection 'Oneshot Wonderland', chapter 15: Two Roads.  
_


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